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Product awareness: Orange smoke hand distress signal - DEV imca
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Product awareness: Orange smoke hand distress signal

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) has published a safety alert regarding the withdrawal of the Certificate of Approval for certain orange smoke hand distress signals. This action has been taken because the chemical makeup of the signal was changed in October 2013 without Coast Guard approval, and the signal that was manufactured is at risk of spontaneous combustion when dropped.

These smoke signals may be labelled and marketed as ‘Polar MK 4’ by NAMMO LIAB AB or as ‘IKAROS’ by Hansson Pyrotech. ‘IKAROS’ Hansson Pyrotech is the more current manufacturing name/Datrex Inc., of Kinder, La., is the only distributor for these products in the United States. There are approximately 2790 such flares with this potential defect in circulation in the USA.

Further information can be found at uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg545/alerts/0416.pdf


IMCA Safety Flashes summarise key safety matters and incidents, allowing lessons to be more easily learnt for the benefit of all. The effectiveness of the IMCA Safety Flash system depends on Members sharing information and so avoiding repeat incidents. Please consider adding safetyreports@imca-int.com to your internal distribution list for safety alerts or manually submitting information on incidents you consider may be relevant. All information is anonymised or sanitised, as appropriate.

IMCA’s store terms and conditions (https://www.imca-int.com/legal-notices/terms/) apply to all downloads from IMCA’s website, including this document.

IMCA makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data contained in the documents it publishes, but IMCA shall not be liable for any guidance and/or recommendation and/or statement herein contained. The information contained in this document does not fulfil or replace any individual’s or Member's legal, regulatory or other duties or obligations in respect of their operations. Individuals and Members remain solely responsible for the safe, lawful and proper conduct of their operations.