[NHCOLL-L:4592] RE: Tissues specimen in ethanol and DMSO-EDTA

Thu Nov 5 10:25:34 EST 2009

Hi Carol

I would not be so quick to change your practices.  As you may have seen from my previous post to NHCOLL-L about dangerous goods regulations, DOT has recently incorporated what they call "De minimus" regulations into 49 CFR under chapter 173.4b (attached) which now allows for quantities of dangerous goods (ethanol) under 1ml to be excepted from dangerous good regulations.  So, at least domestically, you should have no problem sending tissues in less than ml of fluid.  We also recently received a letter of interpretation from DOT and USPS stating that packages of scientific specimens packed as per 173.4 are not subject to the regulations (attached).  Unfortunately, the international regulations (IATA) have yet to adopt this regulation and even if they did so it would only be in 2013 that this would be written into their regulations and be applicable.

However, I have been working very closely with IATA, DOT and USPS to institute specific regulations for scientific specimens.  This is what I wrote in my previous message:

As an aside, I recently received confirmation from my IATA contacts that we have been successful in our bid to have verbiage inserted into the IATA dangerous good manual (Section 2.7) exempting specimen packages from the regulations if packed according to 2.7.  The exact verbiage is yet to be drafted but will be along the lines of:

"Axxx                Museum specimens, such as specimens of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, fishes, insects and other invertebrates containing small quantities of UN 1170, UN 1987 or UN 1219 are not subject to these Instructions provided the following packing and marking requirements are met: 

Specimens are:

1.       Wrapped in paper towel and/or cheesecloth moistened with alcohol or an alcohol solution and then placed in a plastic bag that is heat-sealed. Any free liquid in the bag must not exceed 30 mL; or

2.       Placed in vials or other rigid containers with no more than 30 mL of alcohol or an alcohol solution;

a)      The prepared specimens are then placed in a plastic bag that is then heat-sealed;

b)      The bagged specimens are then placed inside another plastic bag with absorbent material then heat sealed;

c)      The finished bag is then placed in a strong outer packaging with suitable cushioning material;

d)      The completed package is marked "scientific research specimens, not restricted special provision Axxx applies".

The words "not restricted" and the special provision Axxx must be provided on the air waybill when an air waybill is issued.

This will only come into effect in January 2011 but will ensure that, together with the DOT and USPS letters of interpretation that we have already received (attached), all packages, whether domestic or international, will no longer fall into the category of dangerous goods.  It will also allow 30ml of free liquid per RIGID internal package (insects and other fragile specimens can be sent in free liquid) and will also allow 95% ethanol (again, up to 30ml free liquid per RIGID internal package).  

This has far reaching implications - no training necessary (you can self train to pack), previously inaccessible countries will now be accessible, international mailing by USPS to select countries (based on the USPS International Mailing Manual), no labeling requirements, 30ml of free liquid per internal package, 95% ethanol acceptable etc.  It is my hope that this will ease the burden on the small to medium sized museums as well as the larger institutions both within the US and internationally (as most countries follow IATA with some exceptions).  This has been a long and arduous process of negotiation, started with our Dangerous Goods roundtable held in Oklahoma, but the light at the end of the tunnel is now blazing!!!

So, unfortunately these too only come into effect in 2011 but you can still make use of excepted quantity regulations IATA 2.7 (also attached) for sending tissues.  There are still some problem countries and for those I have been draining all alcohol from the specimens and sending them "dry" as non-dangerous goods.  The researcher then rehydrates them upon receipt.  We have yet to have any issues with this method and it seems to work just fine.  We can get away with this but birds and mammals have infectious regulations (APHIS) that prohibit this.

In terms of your original question - switching tissues from ethanol to DMSO - I would be leery of this due to the extensive osmotic changes that the tissue would go through (although I have no hard evidence to back it up).  Just in general terms, I would be hesitant to subject the tissue to any more "trauma" than it has already gone through - who knows what effect this has on DNA strand length etc.

Hope that helps

Andy

   A  :             A  :             A  :
}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>
   V                V                V
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       

   A  :             A  :             A  :
}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>
   V                V                V 

________________________________

From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Carol Spencer
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 8:15 PM
To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:4591] Tissues specimen in ethanol and DMSO-EDTA

Hi NH-Coll folks:

Restrictions in shipping ethanol and dangerous goods have led us to change out practice, so that now we are sending most tissue samples in buffer (DMSO-EDTA).

Does anybody know of any problems of transferring tissues originally in 95% ethanol  or RNALater into DMSO buffer, in terms of quality of DNA for sequencing?

We are also sending tissues originally in RNALater in DMSO-EDTA.

Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Carol Spencer

-- 
Carol L. Spencer
Staff Curator of Herpetology & Researcher
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
3101 Valley Life Sciences Building
University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA 94720-3160
atrox10 at gmail.com
atrox at berkeley.edu
TEL: 510-643-5778 /FAX: 510-643-8238

http://www.herpnet.org
http://mvz.berkeley.edu/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/nhcoll-l/attachments/20091105/fb37e08d/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: DOT 173.4b.pdf
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 78655 bytes
Desc: DOT 173.4b.pdf
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/nhcoll-l/attachments/20091105/fb37e08d/attachment.obj 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IATA 2.7 - DGR ver 50.pdf
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 48608 bytes
Desc: IATA 2.7 - DGR ver 50.pdf
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/nhcoll-l/attachments/20091105/fb37e08d/attachment-0001.obj 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: DOT letter of interpretation - Dec 22 2008.pdf
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 37104 bytes
Desc: DOT letter of interpretation - Dec 22 2008.pdf
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/nhcoll-l/attachments/20091105/fb37e08d/attachment-0002.obj 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: USPS letter of interpretation.pdf
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 93084 bytes
Desc: USPS letter of interpretation.pdf
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/nhcoll-l/attachments/20091105/fb37e08d/attachment-0003.obj 