ICAO adopted a provision to limit the State of Charge (SOC) of bulk Lithium-Ion Batteries (UN 3480) and Lithium-Ion Batteries packed with equipment (UN 3481) shipped as cargo on aircraft to 30%. Research by Underwriters Laboratories(1) and the FAA(2)(3) as well as other unpublished data indicate that failures involving current models of lithium-ion batteries at SOC below 30% are unlikely to result in thermal runaway, and if there is thermal runaway, propagation from one cell to another is unlikely. Flammable gas production is also greatly reduced for tested batteries with reduced SOC. Lithium-ion batteries transported at less than 30% SOC are also less likely to aggravate a fire in case of exposure to an external flame source (...)