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professional judgment concerning individual circumstances of the source human
or animal.

c) Category B, UN 3373

An infectious substance which does not meet the criteria for inclusion in Category
A. Infectious substances in Category B shall be assigned to UN 3373.

The proper shipping name of UN 3373 is BIOLOGICAL SUBSTANCE,
CATEGORY B. (The shipping name DIAGNOSTIC SPECIMENS, CLINICAL
SPECIMENS has been phased out.)

Packing instruction P650 (UN) or PI 650(IATA) apply to these substances.

Figure 1 shows examples of triple packaging systems for Category A and
Category B infectious substances.

d) Category C

Category C applies to surface transport only. This covers human, animal or plant
sample including excreta, secreta, blood and its components, tissues and tissue
fluids, not belonging to Category A or B as listed in IATA Dangerous Goods
Regulation. Category C biological materials comprises substances with a low
probability of causing disease in humans, animals and plants that could cause
community concerns if the specimen was to leak from its packaging.

If transported by air, IATA regulations for Exempt Patient Specimens shall be
followed. If transported by land, Category C shall be packaged, marked,
documented and transported according to the requirements in Malaysian
Standard MS 1042-3. Where the transport is likely to be multi-modal, the
packaging requirements of all modes shall be met. For example, if a package is
to go by both air and road, the packaging requirements for air will satisfy both
requirements.

d) Exempt substances

Substances which do not contain infectious substances, or substances which are
unlikely to cause disease in humans or animals, are not subject to the IATA DGR
unless they meet the criteria for inclusion in another class. Examples include:
• Non-infectious biological materials from human, animals or plants non-
infectious cells (cell-lines), tissue cultures, blood or plasma from individuals
not suspected of having an infectious disease, DNA or RNA or other genetic
elements, antibodies and non-infectious plasmids.
• Substances which are unlikely to cause disease in human or animals
• Substances containing microorganism which are non-pathogenic to human or
animals.

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