[NHCOLL-L:3299] RE: Shipping dangerous goods

[Bentley, Andrew Charles]

Hi Paul

In answer to your questions below:

>> - what the most economical carriers are. FedEx, for example, is
>> hideously expensive if even excepted quantities of alcohol are in a
>> package;
>> - what (if any) work-arounds people are employing to avoid massive
>> surcharges for DG shipments;

All three of these carriers require a dangerous goods contract.  I know
that Fed-Ex is a little more expensive that the other couriers but none
of them should be charging the surcharge for expected quantities.  It is
on the website of both FedEx and UPS and DHL gave me the same
information over the phone.  I have never heard of FedEx automatically
upgrading their shipments to priority for dangerous goods - I would
check with their dangerous goods helpline on this (800-463-3339).

For domestic shipments you can use USPS using 49 CFR 173.4 - which is
the most cost effective method.

>> - which countries are known not to accept any dangerous goods
>> shipments. I have heard that this is true of at least New Zealand. 

The list of countries is constantly changing and so there is no
authoritative list of countries.  You will need to call and check with
the individual courier at the time of shipping to determine the
viability of sending to a particular country unfortunately.

>> - what resources are available on the web to folks like me who want
to
>> keep up with developments in this field.

Unfortunately, there is very little on the web in this regard that would
be of any help.  Both DOT and IATA release updates to their regulations
very so often that can be accessed from their websites but very rarely
do any of these affect us in any way.  The largest problem that we have
is that the regulations are not written with our scenario in mind and so
we are co-opting existing regulations to fit our situation.  We would
like to have specific regulations written for natural history shipments
but as you can imagine this is very low on their priority list and would
take a number of years to be promulgated even if accepted.

I would not suggest what Randy mentions in his email - transferring
specimens to propylene glycol for transport.  There is no data out there
that documents what changes to specimens occur in the transfer (ethanol
to propylene glycol to ethanol and then the same sequence on the way
back if it is a loan and multiple times depending on ho many times the
specimens are loaned).  If done numerous times I would think that this
would irreparably damage specimens especially if there is a specific
density difference between the two fluids.

I am in the process of writing an article outlining all of these issues
and hoping to submit to Collection Forum in the near future so watch out
for it.

Hope that helps

Andy