I doubt that it is expressly prohibited to transport cashew based products
on commercial flights. Urushi lacquers and thinners are flammable liquids.
Flammable liquids are class 3 hazardous materials. Any hazardous material
is subject to strict regulation by international and/or US law. Individual
airlines and, in fact, individual pilots of individual flights, can and do
determine exactly how they will enforce those laws, but the products can be
flown. I've been a hazardous materials auditor for UPS for nearly ten years
and it is my job to determine if a package complies with the hazardous
materials regulations. Compliance involves packing, labeling,
documentation, stowage, training, notification to the pilot, and signed
certification of compliance accompanying the package, and on file at its
origin, which is checked at virtually every step of the way. Compliance is
expensive and tedious but planes have crashed and people have died as the
result of improper hazardous materials transportation.
To get urushi lacquer out of Japan by air, You'll need to find a shipper
and a carrier who are certified by the International Air Transport
Association to transport hazardous materials on international flights. You
can't do it yourself but it can be done. UPS will only carry hazardous
materials (ground or air) by special arrangement, i.e. a contract stating
that the shipper knows and understands the laws, has trained their
employees in the laws, and complies with the laws. There may or may not be
such a shipper for urushi products. Other carriers, DHL, Fed Ex, etc., may
not require a contract but they will enforce compliance in some way.
Smaller dealers like Mejiro are probably not going to be able to comply
but, if the urushi is made by a larger company, a paint manufacturer, they
may be already setup to ship it internationally.
--Brian
____________________________________________________
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 03 2003 - 09:09:54 PST