Shipping With Dry Ice in Life Sciences and Healthcare Logistics
Dry ice is one of the most common ways to keep life science and healthcare shipments frozen in transit, but its presence in a parcel changes how it must be packed, marked, documented, and handled. It's a regulated dangerous good, and the rules around it exist for good reason; as it warms, it releases carbon dioxide gas, which carries significant safety and handling implications.
This article covers why dry ice is used in healthcare logistics, how it maintains the temperatures frozen products require, and the regulatory, packaging, and safety requirements that apply whenever it is part of a shipment.
What is the role of dry ice in healthcare logistics?
Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide. It holds a temperature of around −78.5°C and, instead of melting into a liquid, it sublimates, converting directly from solid to gas. That property is what makes it useful in logistics, since there is no meltwater to manage and a properly packed shipment maintains a stable frozen environment for as long as the dry ice lasts.
It’s supplied in different forms, and the form affects both how quickly it sublimates and how it is packed around a product. DHL Express offers dry ice in plates, flat slabs that layer neatly around a product, and in pellets, small pieces also known as sticks that fill the spaces around it.
In healthcare, dry ice is the standard method for keeping products in the frozen and deep-frozen range, roughly -20°C to -80°C, during transport. That range covers a growing share of what life sciences logistics handles, including many biomaterials, certain vaccines, frozen clinical trial samples, and advanced therapies, such as cell and gene therapies and biobanked tissue, that have pushed cold chain requirements well beyond those for conventional refrigerated goods.
Dry ice as a temperature-control method
It's worth being precise about what dry ice is and is not in the context of temperature-controlled shipping. Dry ice is a cooling method, not the item being shipped. The shipment itself is the vaccine, the sample, or the biologic, and the dry ice is simply there to protect it. The distinction matters operationally because the product sets the temperature requirement, and the quantity of dry ice and the packaging around it are then specified to meet that requirement across the expected transit time.
Note that where a product requires conditions colder than it can withstand, below −150°C for materials such as stem cells, embryos, or cell and gene therapy products, the cooling method shifts to liquid nitrogen and cryogenic systems. This is where it becomes a specialist field of its own, distinct from standard dry ice shipping, and we return to it at the end of this article.
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Regulatory considerations when using dry ice in shipments
Dry ice is classified as a dangerous good. Under the United Nations (UN) system, it carries the number UN1845, with the proper shipping name " Carbon dioxide, solid" or " Dry ice", and it is assigned to Class 9, the miscellaneous dangerous goods category. The classification exists because the carbon dioxide released during sublimation can accumulate in an enclosed space and displace oxygen. Most of the rules follow from that single property.
Requirements vary by transport mode, but they consistently cover three areas:
- Packaging. The packaging must allow carbon dioxide to vent as the dry ice sublimates, which rules out airtight containers, and it must be robust enough to protect the product and hold the dry ice securely during handling.
- Marking and labelling. Each package must display the UN1845 identifier, the proper shipping name ("Carbon dioxide, solid" or "Dry ice"), the net weight of dry ice in kilograms, and a Class 9 hazard label, so that anyone handling it can see what it contains.
- Documentation. What is required depends on the transport mode, and on whether the dry ice is cooling dangerous or non-dangerous goods, which is covered below.
Most healthcare shipments spend at least part of their journey on the road, whether that is collection, delivery, or cross-border ground transport. Road transport is governed by the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR), which sets out how dry ice is classified, how it must be packaged and labelled, and the requirements that apply to the vehicle and the driver carrying it.
Air freight is also widely used, particularly for time-critical shipments, and dry ice carried by air is governed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Dangerous Goods Regulations. These specify packaging that allows gas to vent and the net quantities permitted per package, which vary by carrier and aircraft.
Documentation and packaging standards
A useful nuance is that a Shipper's Declaration for Dangerous Goods is not required when dry ice is used only to cool non-dangerous goods, though the air waybill must still state its presence and quantity. When dry ice is used to cool a regulated substance, such as a Category A infectious substance (UN2814) or a Category B biological substance (UN3373), additional requirements may apply.
Packaging performance is a separate question from transport classification, and it is often validated against International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) standards. ISTA-validated packaging is frequently referenced alongside Good Distribution Practice (GDP), the framework that governs how medicinal products are handled and documented in transit and is enforced in the UK by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). GDP sets the expectation that validated packaging must provide evidence that the chosen solution performs as intended.
The practical stakes here are continuity. Compliant shipments move through customs and carrier checks without interruption. Non-compliant ones get held or rejected, and for a frozen healthcare product, a hold is not a neutral delay. Every hour adds risk as the dry ice sublimates and the temperature window closes.
What packaging and handling are required when shipping with dry ice?
Packaging a dry ice shipment means balancing two competing requirements - holding the cold in and letting the gas out. That tension is why these packages are specified deliberately rather than assembled by improvisation.
The principles are consistent:
| PRINCIPLE | WHAT IT INVOLVES |
| Layered construction | The product sits in an inner container, surrounded by dry ice, inside a sturdy outer box. The configuration protects the contents and keeps the dry ice in the right position. |
| Calculated quantity | Dry ice is packed around the product in an amount calculated based on the transit time, so the frozen environment lasts the full journey with a margin for delays. |
| Ventilation, never sealing | Because dry ice turns into gas, the packaging has to allow that gas to escape. Boxes are closed but not fully sealed, which in practice means avoiding methods like H-taping that would make the package airtight. A sealed package allows pressure to build, which compromises the package at best and ruptures it at worst. |
| Insulation | Insulated outer packaging slows sublimation and extends how long the cold holds, which in turn reduces the amount of dry ice needed. |
| Clear marking | The package must visibly show it contains dry ice, carry the UN1845 marking and net weight, and display the Class 9 label so that everyone handling it knows what is inside. |
Dry ice maintains a temperature, so shipments are usually monitored with data loggers placed inside the package. These record the temperature at set intervals across the journey, which serves two purposes:
- Firstly, it confirms whether the frozen environment was actually held, and it produces the documented evidence that GDP and quality teams expect.
- Secondly, on time-critical or high-value shipments, real-time loggers allow a developing problem to be caught and acted on before it becomes a full excursion, rather than being discovered on arrival.
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Safety measures to consider when transporting goods with dry ice
The risks dry ice introduces are well understood, and all of them are manageable when handling reflects them. Three are worth planning around directly.
- Gas accumulation. As dry ice sublimates, it releases carbon dioxide, which can build up and displace oxygen in enclosed or poorly ventilated spaces. For example, vehicle holds, storage rooms, cold rooms, or confined handling areas. Ventilation is the control in both packaging and the spaces where shipments are stored and processed.
- Pressure build-up. Sealing dry ice inside an airtight container traps the expanding gas and can cause the container to burst. This is the direct reason packaging is vented rather than sealed, and it applies to storage containers as much as to shipping ones.
- Contact injury. Dry ice is cold enough to cause skin and tissue damage on direct contact. Handlers use insulated or cryogenic gloves and eye protection rather than touching it bare-handed.
Storage follows the same logic. Dry ice belongs in well-ventilated areas, never in sealed coolers or unventilated rooms, and clear labelling carries the warning through every handover so that each person touching the shipment understands what it contains and how to handle it.
It is also worth inspecting the packaging before dispatch, since prolonged contact with dry ice can damage or weaken certain materials, and a compromised package may not vent or insulate as intended.
None of this makes dry ice difficult to ship. It makes it a material that rewards correct process, which is exactly what specialist healthcare logistics is set up to deliver.
How Medical Express by DHL Health Logistics supports temperature-sensitive healthcare shipping
Medical Express by DHL Health Logistics moves temperature-sensitive healthcare and life sciences shipments through a globally integrated, time-critical express network. Fast international air and road transport, priority handling, and owned aviation capacity shorten transit times, which directly reduce the risk of temperature excursions on frozen shipments, where dry ice is working against the clock. GDP-friendly processes, temperature-monitored services, data loggers, and priority handling support product integrity across the journey, alongside fast customs clearance and end-to-end shipment visibility across more than 180 countries and territories.
For dry ice shipments specifically, Medical Express uses fit-for-purpose packaging and passive shipping containers, paired with data loggers, and supplies dry ice in plate or pellet form to suit the product. A dedicated Quality Control Centre (QCC) proactively monitors condition-sensitive shipments to help them arrive on time. This includes the compliant movement of Category B biological substances cooled with dry ice.
For shipments that require conditions beyond standard frozen transport, CRYOPDP, part of DHL Express, provides specialist healthcare logistics solutions across refrigerated (+2°C to +8°C), frozen and cryogenic (below −150°C) temperature ranges. These services are supported by temperature-controlled vehicles (TCVs), validated active and passive container solutions, specialist packaging, 24/7 proactive monitoring, and specialist handling for Category A and other high-value temperature-sensitive materials.
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To discuss your dry ice or temperature-controlled shipping requirements, or to explore Medical Express by DHL Health Logistics, speak to a healthcare logistics expert or get a quote.
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