[Nhcoll-l] Transporting wet collections

Mon Sep 4 11:34:45 EDT 2023

In the USA, that's covered by DOT hazmat rules for road transport and probably also by state and local rules for storage and intrastate transport. All of that should be on the web for where you are, and any competent commercial shipper will know it and have certified drivers where necessary.

Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates
________________________________
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
prc44 at drexel.edu<mailto:prc44 at drexel.edu> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170

________________________________
From: Gregory Schneider <ges at umich.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 4, 2023 11:26 AM
To: Callomon,Paul <prc44 at drexel.edu>
Cc: Fabian Neisskenwirth <info at naturhistorische-konservierung.de>; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>; Benjamin Hess <bmhess at umich.edu>; Dan Burke <dburke at palmermoving.com>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Transporting wet collections

External.

Hi Paul,
Do you know the max fluid volume limit for each jar and the maximum combined volume for the drum?
Greg Schneider
Division of Reptiles and Amphibians
Museum of Zoology
Research Museums Center
3600 Varsity Drive
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108

734 647 1927

ges at umich.edu<mailto:ges at umich.edu>

[Description: Description: logocolor]

www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/rep_amph/index.html<http://www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/rep_amph/index.html>

On Mon, Sep 4, 2023 at 9:51 AM Callomon,Paul <prc44 at drexel.edu<mailto:prc44 at drexel.edu>> wrote:
A common solution here, which we have used, is to pack the jars into large plastic drums with full-diameter clamp-on lids. These are themselves rated for fluid transport, so you don't need to add any sorbents. You can use regular packing peanuts or rolled-up towels to keep the jars separated and use cardboard to separate the layers.
Commercial movers have special carts, dollies and lifts for these drums, so they don't need to do anything unusual either. It's safe and easy.

Whatever method you choose, don't use vermiculite - apart from the mess, most of it is contaminated with naturally co-occurring asbestos. If your regulations permit it, coarse sawdust or chopped straw are good, environmentally favorable alternatives.

Paul Callomon

Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates

________________________________

Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
prc44 at drexel.edu<mailto:prc44 at drexel.edu> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170

________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> on behalf of Fabian Neisskenwirth <info at naturhistorische-konservierung.de<mailto:info at naturhistorische-konservierung.de>>
Sent: Monday, September 4, 2023 8:17 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu> <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Transporting wet collections

External.

Dear Pip,

there was a very similar topic that got a lot of feedback in June called "Best packing material for moving of wet collection jars", maybe it would be worth to have a look at that.

My personal advice, apart of good cushioning (the list of possible materials was discussed in the thread mentioned above) of each jar, is to do small transportation batches. So the overview of possible damage on the road is easier. Besides this, usually it makes the safety measures easier, since the legal issues start with certain amount liters of dangerous goods. So if you keep bellow the limit (check your local guidelines), you can use non-dangerous goods transportation or even normal cars.

All the best,

Am 04.09.23 um 13:36 schrieb Pip Brewer:

Hi,

I was wondering whether there is anyone out there with experience of transporting wet collections or who can point me to some information/resource? I’m interested in transport of wet collections (primarily in ethanol) for digitisation at an offsite facility (this is within Europe). Hence, my query concerns large numbers of specimens and multiple trips. I’m aware of some of the issues with this (such as specialist transports and licences for dangerous goods) and understand that the best method would be not to move them offsite. Nonetheless, I would be interested in hearing about experiences anyway – particularly if you have found a workable solution to the logistics of transporting glass jars such as these in bulk.

One method which has been mentioned and tried here in Denmark is the use of vermiculite to pack between jars. However, this produced a lot of dust and mess and was not looked upon favourably!

Many best wishes,

Pip

Pip Brewer

DaSSCo Project Leader

University of Copenhagen

Natural History Museum of Denmark

Digital Collections

København K

pip.brewer at snm.ku.dk<mailto:pip.brewer at snm.ku.dk>

[Logo for Københavns Universitet]

How we protect personal data<https://informationssikkerhed.ku.dk/english/protection-of-information-privacy/privacy-policy/>

_______________________________________________
Nhcoll-l mailing list
Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l

_______________________________________________
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
society. See http://www.spnhc.org<http://www.spnhc.org/> for membership information.
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.

--
Fabian Neisskenwirth
Restaurator/Präparator

Oststr. 138
DE-45057 Duisburg

Tel: +49 (0) 1573 2778729

www.naturhistorische-konservierung.de<http://www.naturhistorische-konservierung.de/>

[cid:part2.0U8Bg8Wx.oOnfg0iJ at naturhistorische-konservierung.de]
_______________________________________________
Nhcoll-l mailing list
Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l

_______________________________________________
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
society. See http://www.spnhc.org<http://www.spnhc.org/> for membership information.
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20230904/3636137c/attachment.html>