When responding to incidents involving hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) or chemical spills, the first concern is to identify the substances involved in order to assess their behaviour and the hazard they may create for the crew, the nearby population, and the marine environment.
Questions such as ‘How will the substance spread in seawater?’, ‘What are the existing safeguards on board of the ship?’, ’How to control the situation?’ need to be answered in order to identify and prioritise the hazards and associated risks before deploying emergency response teams.

The MAR-CIS information sheets provide in a concise way substance-specific and maritime relevant information on chemicals aiming to assist the competent authorities during the initial stage of the response to maritime incidents involving such substances.