The lithium-Ion battery quiet fuels modern life. It runs on our iPhones, iPads, Blackberry and laptops. This is the next round of electric cars coming to market this year.
It also has a controversial record peppered with fire safety and recalls. Now the Department of Transportation wants to toughen rules for how the battery – and devices that contain them – is sent to cargo planes. If finalized, the proposed changes would require shippers to treat iPhones as hazardous materials, on par with burning paint or dry ice the full weight of regulation and added costs in the future classification.
Companies like Apple, UPS and Best Buy say they support stringent safety standards but are concerned the rules go too far and may be punished havoc on supply chains. They warn that the change will raise prices for consumers. And is a testament to the ubiquity of lithium-Ion battery that the dispute over the transportation proposal is now embroiled in everything from trade partners such as Israel and South Korea in aircraft pilots, medical device makers and the National Funeral Directors Association.
The pipeline and hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which is part of the DOT, said it was in the midst of the rulemaking and did not specify when a final decision is expected. But retailers are worried that if PHMSA decides to green-light the rules, the regulations may mean trouble for Christmas shipments.
Lithium-Ion batteries have skyrocketed in popularity because they are lighter and smaller than other batteries. 3300000000 over lithium-Ion cells are shipped in 2008, according to industry estimates, up from 1.5 billion in 2005.
They are also known to ignite because they contain a small amount of flammable solvent. If the battery overheat or short-circuit, in rare cases the solvent may react and burned.
Tech companies such as Dell and Lenovo have issued recalls in recent years for laptop batteries at risk of overheating.
Because policymakers have turned their attention to shipping batteries, especially after a 2006 incident at Philadelphia International Airport where a UPS cargo plane containing lithium batteries caught fire. The National Transportation Safety Board does not determine the exact cause of the fire.
Such scenarios are alarming enough to plane pilots, however, have taken up the cause of tightening rules with the help of Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the House transportation committee.
Current regulators consider any package that contains a lithium-Ion battery to be dangerous but exempt small batteries, such as contained in cellphones. The PHMSA has proposed that the removal of the exemption. Anything containing batteries have specially packaged and labeled, and whoever is sending it to receive hazardous-materials training.
Regulators say the company should focus on better enforcement of existing rules, rather than adding new ones. Industry groups say each battery case is cited as suspicious, the problem is that people are not following the rules.
The new regulations may affect a massive web of companies, including manufacturers, shippers and retailers. They say the costs are staggering. UPS PHMSA said that following the rules will cost the company 264 million U.S. dollars minimum in the first year. And the company said in each subsequent year costs an additional $ 185,000,000.
Best Buy submitted a long list of products that will be affected, including portable GPS devices, portable DVD players and televisions, cellphones, cordless headphones, universal remote controls, cameras, camcorders, even electric razors and toothbrushes.
The funeral director of the group says the proposed regulations will affect their industry, as well, because many dead there are more than funerals pacemakers and defibrillators, which also contains the battery.
Because many of the affected device was flown around the world, the proposed rule also raised the alarm of some U.S. trading partners, concerned the rules may act as an unfair trade barrier, because many products will become more difficult to ship by air in the United States.
“The proposed regulation would threaten the ability to import into the United States battery and – more significantly – with the products of batteries, such as medical devices and water meters,” said a letter submitted to DOT by Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.
Airline pilots insist, however, that regulators move forward with their suggestions.
If the battery a “overheats himself and causing a fire,” said Mark Rogers, director of hazardous-goods program for the Air Line Pilots Association, “you need to ensure that the situation will not be catastrophic.”
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