[NHCOLL-L:3007] responses to shipping herps to Indonesia

Fri Mar 17 18:40:46 EST 2006

Thanks to all who have offered suggestions for 
shipping fluid preserved herps to Indonesia. 
Below are my initial email and many of the 
responses. I called DHL again and they said that 
accepted quantities of ethanol are fine, as long 
as the box is properly labeled. I am getting my 
campus EH&S person to verify it is packed 
correctly, but this is a one-time deal. One 
person at DHL suggested that these would be 
classified as biological or diagnostic specimens, 
though they could not definitely tell me how to 
classify herps. They directed me to DOT in 
Washington. They passed the buck to California. 
Sacramento did not answer the phone and Alameda 
County and San Francisco offices also could not 
tell me what a biological/diagnostic specimen was.

In case anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area is 
interested, I am trying to put together a one day 
training for IATA and CFR at UC Berkeley next 
month. Email me off the list for more info. 

Chris Conroy

Dear NHColl list,

       I am trying to find a way to ship a large 
number of preserved reptiles and amphibians from 
California to Indonesia. I am aware that Fedex 
and UPS do not ship animals whole or in parts. I 
just spoke with DHL and they have the same 
policy. Even taxidermied specimens are 
prohibited. Any suggestions?  And to make it 
better, these are typical herp specimens which 
means they have been preserved in formalin and 
are stored in 70% ethanol. If we knew we could 
ship very quickly, under a week, we could ship in 
water. But, we would prefer to ship in dilute 
ethanol. That has restrictions as well.

Thanks for any advice,

Chris Conroy

chris,

I've heard this from folks before.  Dunno why 
people hit the wall on the dead animal thing.  I 
do online FedEx for over-seas and in the section 
where it asks what they are I enter "preserved 
scientific materials of no commercial value".  We 
even had the graphics dept. make labels for the 
box that say this.

Other issues are:

IATA issues with ETOH volume. (have you guys been IATA trained yet?)
A document from you "To whom it concerns" 
detailing the chemical history of the specimen... 
what fluids has it been in over the years 
(Australia needs this sometimes).
Your Institutional CITES number, even if these are non-CITES taxa.
A pre-cleared USFW 3-177.. speeds the plow on the receiver end, usually.
you might (!) require a vet certificate for the 
specimens.  China required one because of Avian 
flu.  other Asian countries might also.  We are 
having the Yale vets write standard cover sheets 
for each of the common prep-types indicating what 
all that prep method kills.

But as far as FedEx is concerned, they ship 
Scientific materials and even specimens all the 
time.  heck, they also ship live insects, chicken 
eggs, live animals (for pre-approved zoos) and 
even meat and leather.  but if you call it "dead 
lizard".. well.. that's just gross.  Note that 
they do also ship frozen human tissues and semen 
samples and things like that.  As with other 
things, it's in who you talk to and in what you 
call it.

All that said.. does Indonesia have rules about 
this stuff?  Maybe that's the issue and not FedEx.

Greg

Hi Chris

First off, NEVER ship things in water - no matter 
how quickly.  The osmotic pressure changes will 
do irreparable damage to your specimens.

Fed-Ex DOES ship specimens if you use the small 
quantity exceptions regulations as outlined by 
IATA. 

Essentially, excepted quantities are small 
quantities of a dangerous good allowed in courier 
packages.  In the case of 70% ethanol (which is a 
Class 3, Packing group II substance) you can have 
30ml in each internal package and 500ml total for 
the whole package.  The other problem you may 
face is that Fed-Ex is not allowed to transport 
dangerous goods WITHIN certain countries.  You 
may want to check whether Indonesia is on this 
list.  If it is you will only be able to get the 
specimens to the international airport and no 
further.  Your contact at the other end may be 
able to go and collect them though.

I will send you a stock email that I have been 
sending to all interested parties outlining the 
regulations for domestic and international 
shipping of specimens.  The only catch is that in 
order to use these regulations you will need to 
find someone who is trained (or get yourself 
trained) to pack and ship dangerous goods.  Your 
EHS unit on campus may be able to help with this. 
Our EHS unit here at KU trained all of our 
collection managers to be dangerous goods 
shippers and packers at no charge.

Detailed email to follow.  Let me know if any of it doesn't make any sense.

All the best

Andy

I've been using DHL for international shipments.  I can talk to you
about this off list.  It was a little tough getting it set up and
there's more paperwork (I have .pdfs for everything), but now it's
working great and faster and cheaper than USPS. (What did they tell
you?) DHL does a lot of business with University of Michigan and I was
able to make arrangements to ship ethanol with a small quantities
exception. But there is nothing about prohibiting zoological specimens.
They clear all the shipments with customs and file the USFW 3177 forms
as well.

Greg Schneider

Chris -

This issue is unbelievable frustrating, because 
it is quite apparent that the outcome depends on 
who you talk to at each shipping company.  I have 
successfully sent specimens to Italy twice and to 
Brazil once via DHL.  I contacted the 
international division at 800.225.5345 (option 2, 
option 1...if the automated system has not 
changed).  You might also call the DHL hazardous 
goods people to confirm everything is fine at 
800.588.2002.  I would tell them the following:

  - You have scientific specimens that have been 
preserved in 70% ethanol - you will need to be 
descriptive on your airbill, but focus on 
"preserved scientific specimens," even though you 
will list the species and such on the paperwork. 
This small difference may place you into a 
different category for the shipper than 
industries/people sending "animals."
  - If your specimens are small enough, you can 
ship under the small quantities exemption (49 CFR 
173.4) so you can talk to the DHL people about 
this and the fact that you are aware of the US 
regulations, etc.  Internationally, this is the 
"Dangerous Goods in Excepted Quantities" 
classification.  You will need the special label 
to affix to your boxes for this 
(<http://www.hazmatpac.com>www.hazmatpac.com - 
LQ12 product on 
<http://www.hazmatpac.com/page50.html>http://www.hazmatpac.com/page50.html).

You will need to complete a Proforma Invoice in 
triplicate, and the DHL folks can walk you 
through this.  I also complete the USFWS 3-177 
ahead of time and include a copy of the cleared 
declaration.  I assume you have taken the 
hazardous materials shipping course, so some of 
this info may just be connecting the snippets of 
information from that course.

I have only shipped under the "Dangerous Goods in 
Excepted Quantities" classification, but our 
mammals department has shipped fluid specimens at 
least once via Fed-Ex (like you, I could not get 
Fed-Ex to allow shipment of my specimens, but our 
Mammals CM could) with a large amount of ethanol 
(they paid the haz-mat fee and bought all of the 
paint can-type containers for shipping these 
types of materials).

I feel your frustration...good luck.  Feel free 
to call if I can answer any questions based on my 
experiences. 

Chris

Chris,

I manage the Benthic Invertebrate Collection at 
SIO and send whole invertebrate specimens 
overseas via FedEx frequently (mostly to Europe). 
The Hazardeous Shipping person at UCSD has me 
list them as diagnostic specimens and the box is 
given a shipping code that identifies them as 
invertebrates.  I sometimes ship specimens in 95% 
EtOH by reducing the volume to a minimum.  Quick 
shipping combined with dilution and volume 
reduction of the EtOH seems to be the best way to 
go by trying to fall into the "Excepted 
Quantities" catagory for percentages and volumes.
FedEx insists on next day delivery to limit the 
time the hazardous materials are in their hands. 
You might consider using next day shipping and 
using minimal water or low percentage EtOH and 
cheese cloth to keep the specimens damp in 
transit.  The rules are pretty specific about 
volumes and percentages, so with some clever 
manipulation of your preservative and shipping 
transit time you should be able to ship them.  I 
have not shipped to Indonesia, so maybe there is 
something specific about that country.

I am not sure why you are having problems with 
FedEx unless the person you are talking to is not 
aware of all the rules.  Isn't there an on campus 
person you have to route shippments of hazardeous 
materials through that is working with FedEx on a 
frequent basis?  We are forced to do that here at 
UCSD and I would assume that would be the case at 
other UC campuses also.  But then again 
continuity within UC is not always the case.
This possibly speaks to another issue that has 
been discussed down here, the need for UC 
collections at the different campuses to have 
some sort or cohesivness or connectedness within 
UC.  Feel free to ask other questions.  If you 
want to call me I can be reached at (858) 
822-2818.

Regards,

Larry Lovell

Kathy,
We ship herps in cheesecloth moistened with 20% 
ethanol, double or triple sealed in plastic bags 
with an absorbent included. It is my 
understanding that if the ethanol is less than 
24% and the rest is water and no other hazardous 
chemicals, you can send it without declaring it 
dangerous goods, usually USPS Express or first 
class registered. On the customs slip however one 
has to declare that they are "preserved 
scientific specimens, no endangered species, no 
commercial value" and give a number of specimens, 
etc. We have had reports that DHL to Australia 
charges an exorbitant amount just to store the 
specimens as they go through customs. I don't 
know if Indonesia is different. Good luck. 
Unfortunately every rep at these companies tends 
to give a different answer. Ask Jeff Williams, 
collection manager at the Smithsonian 
(williamsjt at si.edu).

Rick Feeney
Collection Manager, Ichthyology/Herpetology
Natural History Museum
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90007
213-763-3374
213-748-4432 (FAX)
<mailto:rfeeney at nhm.org>rfeeney at nhm.org

From: Kathy Omura [mailto:komura at nhm.org]
Sent: March 2, 2006 10:38 AM
To: Rick Feeney
Subject: Fwd: [NHCOLL-L:2981] shipping preserved specimens to Indonesia

Hey Rick,
Maybe you could help out this guy. He said FedEx 
and UPS don't ship animals whole or in parts. 
That's not true is it? As long as the specimen is 
not some sort of HAZARDOUS material. A regular 
preserved specimen can be shipped as Dangerous 
Goods in Excepted Quantities right?
I wonder what FedEx and DHL are telling Conroy or 
more importantly, what questions is he asking?
Thanks, Kathy

I have not used USPS for international shipments in many years (since
homeland security legislation made it illegal to ship dangerous goods
such as ethanol).  I use DHL for international shipments of preserved
museum specimens traveling as loans/exchanges between registered
scientific institutions using our COSE permit. The key was setting up a
"small quantities exception" contract with DHL for ethanol. I am happy
to talk about this further with you.  I think a telephone conversation
will be more appropriate.  I will be here until 5:00 today EST.

Greg Schneider

Dear Dr. Conroy,

I know someone usually ships specimens as 
'documents' by DHL due to this absurd situation, 
which it seemingly gets worse and worse.
The scientific community should take action as soon as possible.
Yet I've been told that scientific institutions 
like universities, museums and hospitals often 
have specific conventions stipulated with DHL to 
send biological material...

BTW, a good solution for fishes (I work with 
fishes) is to send them wrapped in cotton soaked 
with ethanol (at least it's not a liquid 
volume...). The best thing to prevent leakage is 
to put the wrapped specimens in plastic jars with 
a double cap, or in heat-sealed plastic bags 
inside plastic jars. Don't forget to put also 
some material around jars (newspaper, 
polystyrene, etc.) to absorb mechanical shocks.

They can be safely kept for days in this way, 
prevented they're already well fixed and stored 
for at least several days in a clear solution.

Hope this can be of help.

Best,
Gianluca Polgar

Hi Chris

Depends very much on who is borrowing them and 
where they are going.  There are some countries 
that we routinely refuse to ship specimens too 
because there is too great a chance that the 
specimens will be damaged or go missingŠ but on 
the whole, no, we haven't really seen that as an 
issue.

The only aspects left to tackle are:

1.	Large specimens that require more than 30ml of fluid to keep them moist
2.	Carrying specimens on a plane
3.	Internal country regulations that make it 
impossible to transport specimens within some 
countries

Glad I could help.  I will be presenting a talk 
at the SPNHC meeting in Albuquerque on this too.

Andy
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