International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) member nations and airline safety advocates will attempt this month to legislate a safer way to transport billions of lithium-chemistry batteries by air every year. Recommendations being considered by the 20-member Dangerous Goods Panel could drastically change how the batteries are packed and shipped. 
Proposals include: an outright ban on shipping lithium-ion batteries in passenger aircraft until better packaging is available, requiring airlines to complete mandatory risk assessments before transporting them, shipping at lower levels of charge than currently done and removing the so-called lithium battery “loophole” that allows for unlimited numbers of small batteries to be shipped in bulk without the typical hazardous material notifications to the airline. 
The panel meets three times every two years, with October’s final meeting the capstone where final agreements on new or revised technical instructions for shipping will notionally be approved and set for implementation Jan. 1, 2017.
The need for change has been highlighted by at least two cargo aircraft losses where bulk shipments of individual lithium batteries or cells were implicated—a UPS DC-8 freighter in Philadelphia in 2006 and a fatal UPS Boeing 747-400 freighter crash at Dubai in September 2010—and by a growing portfolio of battery testing results by the FAA at its Atlantic City International Airport Technical Center in New Jersey. Researchers there have shown that fires in bulk shipments of lithium-metal batteries—the nonrechargeable batteries used in cameras, watches and other consumer electronics—cannot be extinguished by the Halon fire suppressant used in aircraft cargo holds, and that the same suppressant is only “marginally effective” in putting out lithium-ion battery fires. The situation is worse for freighter aircraft with “Class E” main deck cargo areas that generally have no active fire suppressant.