[NHCOLL-L:3802] Shipping natural history specimens in dangerous goods

[Bentley, Andrew Charles]

Hi all

 

We will be holding a roundtable discussion at the SPNHC 2008 meeting in Oklahoma City, OK to which representatives of DOT, IATA, USPS, FedEx, UPS and DHL have been invited.  Our aim is to get some resolution on the issues surrounding the packing, handling and shipping of natural history specimens in dangerous goods.  With two letters of interpretation having been written by DOT classifying these shipments as falling outside the scope of the dangerous goods regulations, and a similar letter from USPS in the works, there is a good chance that we can get all natural history specimen shipments (conforming to the packing requirements of small and excepted quantities) classified as non-dangerous thereby simplifying the shipping procedures that we are all using at present.

 

In order to ensure that we are covering all the necessary scenarios and facilitate discussion I would like to solicit questions/comments/outstanding issues pertaining to both domestic and international shipment of fluid preserved specimens (specific destinations or specimen types, packing, labeling, regulations etc.) so that we can present these in some logical format to the representatives of each of these agencies before the meeting to ensure that they are well informed regarding our practices and issues and also to ensure that they come prepared with all the necessary information to answer our questions.  I am particularly interested in shipping horror stories that we can use to outline the problems we are facing, together with any international experiences - material coming into the country or shipping procedures from other countries.

 

If you have any such unanswered questions/comments/outstanding problems or have encountered a particular problem is shipping specimens, please forward these to me at your earliest convenience so that I can start to assemble these for dissemination.  This is even more important as it appears as if USPS and DHL will not be able to attend in person (for various reasons) and so it will be important to get their opinions before the roundtable takes place.  The roundtable is going to be an invitation only session as we would like to keep numbers low to ensure that we cover as much material as possible.  I have assembled a short list of people who will be attending the roundtable but if you will be attending SPNHC 2008 in Oklahoma and have a compelling reason why you think you should attend this session please let me know.  Once I have an authoritative list, I will forward these on to the relevant bodies and also back to NHCOLL-L for perusal.

 

Thanking you in advance

 

Andy

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Andy Bentley
Ichthyology Collection Manager/Specify Usability Lead
University of Kansas
Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research Center
Dyche Hall
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561
USA

Tel: (785) 864-3863
Fax: (785) 864-5335
Email: ABentley at ku.edu       
                                                
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