Overview

The United Nations (UN) Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods are contained in the UN Model Regulations. This document is prepared by the Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). These UN regulations provide a comprehensive classification system of hazards organized as a list of dangerous goods. The groups of dangerous goods are broken down into nine classes according to the type of hazard the goods present. Lithium batteries are classified in the UN miscellaneous dangerous goods category, Class 9.

These batteries are assigned UN numbers, as follows:

• UN 3090, Lithium metal batteries
• UN 3480, Lithium ion batteries

If the lithium metal or lithium ion battery is inside of a piece of equipment or packed separately with a piece of equipment, lithium batteries are classified, as follows:

• UN 3091, Lithium metal batteries contained in equipment
• UN 3091, Lithium metal batteries packed with equipment
• UN 3481, Lithium ion batteries contained in equipment
• UN 3481, Lithium ion batteries packed with equipment