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The 17th International Law Enforcement Intellectual Property (IP) Crime Conference was held on September 23-25 in Willemstad, Curacao, co-hosted by INTERPOL, UL Standards & Engagement, the Government of Curacao, and the Curinde Free Trade Zone. The conference focused on monitoring, international prevention and law enforcement, policy, training, and solutions to counterfeiting and trade in illicit goods. The conference attracted a multinational and multilingual array of several hundred experts and practitioners for a series of panel and break-out sessions and plenary presentations.
Dr. Azarian was invited to serve as a panelist on the topic of “Mitigating Transportation Safety Risks from Counterfeit Batteries.” The hour-long panel session was facilitated by Dr. Judy Jeevarajan, VP and Executive Director of UL’s Electrochemical Safety Research Institute (ESRI), and also included Mr. Marcello Orellana, Regional Safety Office at the International Civil Aviation Organization and Mr. Victor Barrett, Assistant Superintendent of Police in Jamaica.
The panel discussed the serious safety risks to transportation associated with lithium batteries, including the over 500 verified air transportation incidents involving smoke, fire, or extreme heat that were documented just by the FAA between 2006 and 2024. These safety risks increase significantly when the transported batteries are counterfeit and thus fail to meet basic and quality safety standards. The panel was challenged by the conference organizers to provide potential solutions to this growing problem.
Dr. Azarian presented a summary of CALCE’s research on the supply chain origins of counterfeit lithium ion batteries and offered a four-part solution to the problem consisting of:
- Five specific strategies for securing the supply chain,
- Methods for identifying suspect counterfeit batteries,
- Standards development to codify best practices, and
- Health monitoring for early warning of safety-critical battery faults.
For further information on CALCE’s research on securing the supply chain and mitigating risks from counterfeit batteries, please contact Dr. Michael H. Azarian.
October 14, 2024
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