HAZMAT Class 6 Toxic & Infectious Substances

Class 6 dangerous goods are subdivided into two divisions:

• Division 6.1 - Toxic substances
• Division 6.2 - Infectious substances

Toxic substances are substances that are liable to cause harm, injury, or death through ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact.

Toxic substances are assigned to a packing group based on their degree of toxic hazards:

• Packing Group I - Very severe toxicity risk
• Packing Group II - Serious toxicity risk
• Packing Group III - Low toxicity risk

Infectious substances are known or are reasonably expected to contain pathogens. This includes the following:

• Biological products
• Cultures
• Patient specimens
• Medical and clinical wastes

Packing

All packages containing infectious substances must be marked on the outside of the package with the name and telephone number of the person responsible.

Inner packagings with infectious substances must not be consolidated with inner packagings containing unrelated goods.

Class 6 dangerous goods and any dangerous goods with a subsidiary toxic risk must not be stowed in the same compartment with animals, foodstuffs, feed, or other edible substances, unless both the dangerous goods and foodstuffs are loaded in separate, closed unit load devices.

To learn more about IATA DGR visit our IATA DGR Refresher Online Training web page.