MARS 227 - September 2011

The Mariners' Alerting and Reporting Scheme is a confidential reporting system run by The Nautical Institute to allow full reporting of Accidents (and Near Misses) without fear of litigation. MARS reports are available to download and can also be accessed through the

Nautical Institute website.

MARS 201152

Dangers of Aluminium Phosphide

(Edited from Britannia P& I Risk Watch Vol 17, No. 1)

A container vessel loaded some containers of Aluminium Phosphide (IMDG Class 4.3, UN No. 1397) from an Asian port. The consignment used plastic bags as inner packaging and steel drums as outer packaging. The drums were then secured on wooden pallets and these were finally stacked inside a standard marine freight container.

During the voyage, the crew heard a number of small ‘explosions’ inside one of these containers, after which some smoke escaped past the rubber seals of the door. On seeing the smoke, the crew assumed that the cargo inside was burning and sprayed water on the outside of the container exterior in order to cool it.

Although the cargo had been correctly declared at the time of shipment, the relevant Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) was not provided to the carrier or to the vessel. The crew was unaware of the fact that contact between water and Aluminium Phosphide produces phosphine, an extremely flammable and toxic gas.