Narrative:

I'm not sure this is an as soon as possible; but I feel the dissemination of the information to crews may be critical. The first officer brought to my attention that we were being loaded with several hundred gallons (if not > 1000 gallons) of a compound listed as glufosinate ammonium. I verified with ZZZZ ops the material was not a hazmat and I confirmed with the emergency response guide (erg) that the compound was not listed as a hazardous material. I am a certified hazmat operations level technician and I started to do more research after we were well into the flight. The hairs on the back of my neck were still bugging me. I do not know if this fluid was a problem; but I felt further research into the matter was appropriate. I am familiar with most ammonium compounds and know that there can be some issues. I felt that an as soon as possible was appropriate to determine if this compound may or may not have been left off of the 'list' for hazmat. If not needed to be on the list; I feel an info to crews might be appropriate based on the sheer volume of material we carried. As a side note; the weight of the material put us at max weight for takeoff-at balanced field length. Just thought that might be of interest. I just feel that if we are going to carry this volume of material; that a message to the crew verifying the type of material might be appropriate.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier pilot questions the classification of glufosinate ammonium that was loaded as cargo on the flight; as non-hazmat.

Narrative: I'm not sure this is an ASAP; but I feel the dissemination of the information to crews may be critical. The First Officer brought to my attention that we were being loaded with several hundred gallons (if not > 1000 gallons) of a compound listed as glufosinate ammonium. I verified with ZZZZ ops the material was not a hazmat and I confirmed with the Emergency Response Guide (ERG) that the compound was not listed as a hazardous material. I am a certified HAZMAT operations level technician and I started to do more research after we were well into the flight. The hairs on the back of my neck were still bugging me. I do not know if this fluid was a problem; but I felt further research into the matter was appropriate. I am familiar with most ammonium compounds and know that there can be some issues. I felt that an ASAP was appropriate to determine if this compound may or may not have been left off of the 'list' for hazmat. If not needed to be on the list; I feel an info to crews might be appropriate based on the sheer volume of material we carried. As a side note; the weight of the material put us at max weight for takeoff-at balanced field length. Just thought that might be of interest. I just feel that if we are going to carry this volume of material; that a message to the crew verifying the type of material might be appropriate.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.