[Nhcoll-l] Best packing material for moving of wet collection jars

[John E Simmons]

The problems with vermiculite are inhaling the dust and that with the
vibrations of moving it can easily shift enough to fail to cushion the
containers from knocking against each other. The safety officers are
recommending it simply to absorb leaks. If your jars are well sealed you
could use newspaper for padding. If the potential for leakage is a problem
use absorbent pads for packing. Another serious concern is the environment
of the storage area. If there is much temperature variation this can result
in the failure of container seals. Is the temporary storage area heated
and/or cooled? If so, how? How variable is the temperature?

On Mon, Jun 19, 2023, 7:03 PM Elizabeth Wommack <ewommack at uwyo.edu> wrote:

> The UWYMV has to do an emergency move of its wet collection to accommodate
> construction in the museum building.
>
> We are working with our Safety Office to make sure the fluid specimens
> will be stored as safely as possible. The current plan is to package up
> each shelf into hard sided moving boxes, fill the space inbetween jars with
> vermiculite, and store the collection in the flammable liquid storage
> building until construction is completed.
>
> I have read both Simmons 2014 and Coetzer et al. 2009, as well as gone
> through SPNHC's documentation on moving of collections. With our very
> limited time we will do the best we can for inventory, and make sure each
> jar is topped off before it goes into a box.
>
> I could not find recommendations on boxing and packing material for
> movement of whole jars of fluid specimens however. Vermiculite was the
> recommendation of our Safety Office, since that is how they transport jars
> of chemicals safely. Does anyone know of adverse affects from vermiculite
> or a better easily accessible storage material we should be using?
>
> Any thoughts and recommendations greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
> Beth Wommack
>
> Elizabeth Wommack, PhD
> Curator and Collections Manager of Vertebrates
> University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates
> Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center
> University of Wyoming,
> Laramie, WY 82071
> ewommack@ <ewommack at berkeley.edu>uwyo.edu
> pronouns: she, her, herself
> www.uwymv.org
> UWYMV Collection Use Policy
> <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zH0_rDHQmerM4ZU7k2wu8UmRha6aC1Yo/view?usp=share_link>
>
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