The Dangerous Goods Database is part of a hazardous materials/dangerous goods information system of the Federal Republic of Germany and provides edited and condensed dangerous goods regulations information required for the safe transport of dangerous goods.
Target groups for the DGG are authorities and companies which supervise, plan or perform dangerous goods transportation.
DGG’s history
BAM has been gathering information about dangerous goods in the form of a database since 1982. Data for the material-related design type approval of tank containers provided the core information.
Following a government announcement by the Federal Chancellor, the Government started to develop a pollutant database at the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA) in 1987 and the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur, BMVI) joined in this project in the field of dangerous goods transportation. This decision was based on the optimal conditions at BAM, because here dangerous goods experts from different areas work together. Through their work in national and international committees, they have access to all relevant information and current changes in legal development.
The BMVI thereupon commissioned BAM in 1990 with developing a "demonstration database". This was established by BAM as a part of the dangerous materials/ dangerous goods rapid information system (GSA) of UBA.
In December 1993 the container ship MS Sherbro, loaded with dangerous goods, had an accident off the French coast. The accident made it clear that rapidly available and reliable data must be maintained to enable quick government decisions. As a consequence, the accelerated development of the "demonstration database" was prompted which became the Dangerous Goods Database (DGG).
In 1996 the Dangerous Goods Database started the first online service with an alphanumeric Oracle user interface. In 2000 the standalone application with a graphical user interface could be published for the first time on CD-ROM. The Internet application and first data deliveries to licensees followed in 2001.
In 2003 a module for radioactive materials was integrated. A module for the creation of transport documents for packages according to ADR was added in 2005.
The dangerous goods regulations are continuously being developed according to the state of science and technology. These developments are constantly being incorporated into the Dangerous Goods Database information system and published annually in the form of new versions of the products.
For example, version 9.0 of the Dangerous Goods Database, published in December 2012, featured information on environmentally hazardous properties (aquatic environmental hazard) for the first time. With the current version 12.0 (December 2018) the information is now available for more than 5,200 substances and substance mixtures, whether they are environmentally hazardous in the sense of inland traffic regulations. More than 4,000 of these were identified as environmentally hazardous or, under certain circumstances, environmentally hazardous (concentration-dependent); just under 1,200 were classified as “not environmentally hazardous”.