A revision to Regulation III/7 of the SOLAS Convention, which concerns personal life-saving appliances, will require all passenger ships to provide lifejackets for ’infants’ on board, and suitable accessories to allow adult life jackets to be used by all persons, regardless of size.

The regulation applies from July 1, 2010, and will require passenger ships on voyages less than 24 hours to provide a number of infant lifejackets equal to at least 2.5% of the number of passengers on board. Passenger ships on voyages of 24 hours or more must provide infant lifejackets for each infant on board.

An ’infant’ is not defined in SOLAS. However, the LSA Code defines an infant as a person of less than 15 kg in weight and of less than 100 cm in height.
It is recommended that owners and operators of passenger ships develop a procedure to ensure this new requirement can be complied with on all voyages. It is further recommended that owners and operators contact lifejacket manufactures regarding the availability of infant lifejackets and accessories.