During the week of September 21-25, I attended and served as plenary chairperson at the 7th Annual IQPC Cold Chain Distribution for Pharmaceuticals Conference in Philadelphia and delivered a presentation at the United States Pharmocopeia Annual Scientific Meeting in Toronto. It was a hectic week.

I always look forward to these events - not only to keep up with what is going on within the industry - but to meet and reconnect with the many colleagues, friends and associates I have had the pleasure to know over these many years in cold-chain - many of whom I get to see only once or twice a year. 

I'd like to apologize to those who attended either of these conferences with whom I might have appeard distant or distracted. I was consumed by a bit of a personal nightmare during that week, a family tragedy which occurred only days before, on September 19th, and it permiated nearly my every thought and action and required considerable time, attention and energy.  

My thanks to those few colleagues with whom I shared this knowledge during the conferences and whose care, compassion, condolences and understanding really helped me get through through a most difficult week.

I have had several delegates at recent Cold Chain Conferences requesting a copy of the 24 Hour Worldwide Air Traffic video which I have included as an introduction to many of my IATA presentations. Here's the link to the Zurich School of Engineering who produced the video. Enjoy!

BTW: Care to guess how many flights this video represents in a 24 hour period?

Answer: Globally, there are approximately 85,000 flights daily!

The Live Animals & Perishables Board of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) voted last week to ammend the orientation of the Time & Temperature Sensitive Handling Label following concerns by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the International Civil Aviation Administration (ICAO) that the label may possibly be confused with Dangerous Goods labeling.

The label color, graphics, and verbiage will remain the same. However, the orientation of the label (a four inch square applied to the outermost transportation package "on point") "should be rotated 45 degrees so that it appears as a square and not a diamond," declared David Brennan, Head of Cargo Safety & Standards at IATA. "The concern is that confusion may arise as a result of the label orientation which could delay a time and temperature sensitive shipment, or lead to the package being opened, or that a dangerous goods inspector will interpret the label as dangerous goods, when in fact it is not, which could possibly lead to a fine." 

IATA went on to say that any original labels printed "on point" can still be used until inventories are exhausted, provided they are applied "on square."

REVISED IATA

TIME & TEMPERATURE SENSITIVE HANDLING LABEL

The Time & Temperature Sensitive Handling Label usage is specific to the healthcare industry. It was first introduced in Chapter 17 of the 9th Edition of the IATA Perishable Cargo Regulations (effective July 1, 2009), as an optional label to be used in conjunction with a Quality Management System between the shipper, freight forwarder, airline carrier and others in the distribution chain.

The label has been used on a voluntary basis by several shippers since July of this year and while no reports of confusion with dangerous goods has been reported, the LAPB voted to change the orientation before the label becomes a requirement on July 1, 2010.

In addition, IATA has defined the specifications and the Pantone color scheme for those wishing to reproduce the label for their operations.

You can link to IATA's specifications for the Time & Temperature Sensitive Label and the Perishable Cargo Regulations 9th Edition Chapter 17 Addendum here.