Last year, several people died when refrigerated shipping containers exploded. It's now reported that Russian customs agents have found cylinders that were shipped from China through Poland and were declared as R134a, but that actually contain different substances, including the dangerous R22/R40 mixture that was implicated in three deaths in last year's reefer explosions.
UNEP has now confirmed that customs officers at the port of Saint Petersburg seized 1150 cylinders totalling more than 19 tonnes of ozone-depleting substances.
The cylinders originated from China and were shipped by sea via Gdansk in Poland. They were declared as R134a but actually comprised 3320kg of R12, 2490kg of R113, 4980kg of R141b as well 8300kg of the dangerous R22/R40 mixture implicated in three deaths in reefer explosions last year. Investigations are ongoing.