IATA Infectious Substances Shipping Guidelines 18th Edition 2025

The ISSR includes all the detailed provisions applicable to shipping infectious substances efficiently and safely. Critical shipments that are transported for laboratory tests, being delayed due to non-compliance or other shipping problems could mean a delay to initiating the necessary public health response or identifying the treatment required for a patient.

The ISSR contains documentation and packaging examples, checklists for every step of the process and shipping regulations for air, sea, road, rail, courier and the postal service.

What’s inside the ISSR?

• Applicability (legislation, postal authorities, shipper, package supplier and carrier responsibilities, state and vendor variations)
• Classification (UN numbers, classification criteria and scenarios)
• Identification (list of dangerous goods, special provisions)
• Packing (triple packaging, quantity limits, freezing or cooling, certified packing, overpacks, packing instructions)
• Packaging performance tests (performance tests, finding the right packaging)
• Marking and labelling (package use marking)
• Documentation (waybill, how to complete the declaration form, sample documentation by material)
• Handling (acceptance, checklists, refusals)
• Emergency response (contact information, responsibilities, spills, leaks, first aid)
• Training (national requirements, training schools)
• Dangerous goods security (general provisions, training, high consequence provisions, security plans)