Roughly 80% of dangerous goods incidents reported to IATA in the first half of 2025 involved undeclared or hidden hazardous materials — lithium batteries, e-cigarettes and aerosols among them. The figure anchors a new white paper from the International Air Transport Association, Safety and Security in the Cargo Supply Chain, which argues that airport security screening cannot carry the burden of detecting misdeclared shipments and calls for controls pushed further upstream in the freight chain.

The data point raises a direct question about the effectiveness of existing aviation security screening regimes. IATA's position is blunt: those systems were designed to detect explosives and other security threats, not the full range of dangerous goods, and treating them as the primary defense against rogue shippers misreads their purpose.

"Dangerous goods are transported safely by air every day. The risk comes when they enter the system undeclared or incorrectly declared. Every part of the supply chain has a role to play in identifying and stopping such incidents as soon as possible," said IATA's Global Head of Cargo, Brendan Sullivan.

"Security screening, which is primarily focused on terror threats, is one layer of protection against rogue shippers, but it is not a complete solution. A comprehensive multi-layer approach beginning as far upstream the supply chain as possible is essential," Sullivan added.

A framework exists — compliance does not

IATA acknowledges that well-established Dangerous Goods Regulations already provide the framework for moving hazardous materials safely by air. The gap is enforcement. Compliance remains a major concern, and the association wants governments to strengthen oversight across the cargo supply chain rather than concentrate scrutiny at the airport checkpoint.

The white paper distributes responsibility across every segment of the chain. Manufacturers and online marketplaces should ensure dangerous goods are correctly identified and certified where necessary, with accurate product information accompanying shipments. Shippers, freight forwarders and postal operators are advised to improve staff training and cargo acceptance controls, and to make greater use of customer and shipment data to flag higher-risk cargo before it reaches the airport. Airlines and ground handlers should strengthen checks before loading, and airports should improve coordination and information sharing across the cargo community so risks surface early.

The e-commerce dimension is implicit in the prescription. Data-driven risk identification by forwarders and postal operators only becomes meaningful when shipment volumes originate increasingly from online retail channels, where product descriptions and declarations frequently diverge from what is actually in the box. Lithium batteries — embedded in consumer electronics, packed alongside them, or shipped loose — remain the persistent hazard category in incident reports.

Regulators weigh screening's limits

IATA's intervention lands amid active discussions among regulators over what role existing aviation security screening should play in preventing dangerous goods incidents. The association's answer is that screening is one layer, not the solution — and that the measures in its white paper are aimed at ensuring hazardous materials are properly declared and handled before they ever enter the air transport system.

The argument carries operational and cost consequences for carriers. Undeclared dangerous goods incidents force diversions, emergency responses, fleet inspections and investigation costs that fall on airlines regardless of fault. A screening-centric regime also concentrates expense at the airport, where throughput constraints already pinch cargo capacity. Moving detection upstream — to shippers, forwarders and marketplaces — shifts both the cost and the accountability closer to the source of the risk.

For regulators, the white paper effectively reframes the policy question: not whether screening can catch hidden lithium batteries, but whether oversight regimes can compel accurate declaration at the point of tender. IATA's message to governments is that enforcement of existing dangerous goods requirements, not new checkpoint technology, is the lever that matters.

What happens next depends on whether civil aviation authorities and postal operators act on the recommendations — and whether the 80% undeclared-cargo share in IATA's incident data begins to fall when the association compiles its next reporting period.