[NHCOLL-L:714] Re: HazMat shipping protocol

[Doug Yanega]

Thomas Labedz wrote:

>To best meet our museum's needs and their (and
>EPA's, IATA's, etc.) requirements we are developing a protocol for
>packaging and shipment of common museum chemicals associated with
>specimens (alcohol, formalin, etc.) that meet all our needs and
>requirements, and that will facilitate training of museum staff.  It
>would simplify and accelerate our process if we could use another
>museum's protocol as a template for our own.

Have you actually gotten a definitive answer on what the regulations
regarding ethanol are? I've never gotten the same answer twice (from the
Post Office, at least), and we simply assume that shipments under 500 ml of
80% ethanol do not merit a "hazardous" label. The idea of putting a
"hazardous" label on a box containing a single 2-dram vial of insects in
70% ethanol is ludicrous. It would be interesting to know if there is in
fact a definitive limit, what it is, and why. As a pertinent aside, we
recently purchased a heat-sealer, and each vial of alcohol we ship out is
now enclosed individually in an airtight plastic pouch, greatly reducing
risks associated with leakage or breakage.

Peace,


Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
           http://entmuseum9.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82