USPS: HAZMAT Awareness Month – Keep the Mail Safe

November 16, 2023 The Postal Service is bolstering its efforts to safely identify, handle and deliver mailable hazardous materials. The organization is reminding all employees to always ask customers if a parcel contains anything potentially hazardous, and to thoroughly examine every box for hazmat markings. USPS has also improved its longstanding hazmat policies and procedures…

 Continue reading

USPS: Protect the mailstream – properly dispose of hazardous, regulated items

August 3, 2023 The Postal Service wants to remind employees to safeguard the mailstream from improperly wrapped or damaged packages containing hazardous materials. Once packages containing damaged, leaking or nonmailable hazardous materials are identified, they should be brought to a designated rewrap or hazardous material mail staging area for assessment. Hazardous items that are disposed…

 Continue reading

USPS: Dispose of waste bulbs properly

September 27, 2021 The Postal Service is reminding employees that most waste bulbs contain hazardous materials and must be disposed of properly. Fluorescent, high intensity discharge (HID), light emitting diode (LED), neon and ultraviolet bulbs contain mercury or other toxic metals. When these bulbs are no longer usable, they are considered universal waste and must…

 Continue reading

Postal Bulletin: November is HAZMAT Awareness Month

To protect the health and safety of our employees and the general public, the Postal Service™ has developed specific procedures for safeguarding, identifying, handling, and delivering hazardous materials (HAZMAT). Since there have been several recent incidents of non-mailable HAZMAT in the mailstream, November has been designated “HAZMAT Awareness Month” to highlight these issues. Incidents, including…

 Continue reading

USPS: Keep the Path Clear for Holiday Cheer!

USPS News Release – October 21, 2020 WASHINGTON, DC — It’s important to practice good safety protocols all day, every day. But it’s especially important during the holiday season. There’s so much to do to get ready — with all the decorating, shopping and cooking — sometimes people lose sight of common hazards that could…

 Continue reading

USPS OIG: Mercury Mailability Communication and Implementation

Objective Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of the internal communication and implementation of mercury mailability policy changes. The Postal Service revised its mercury mailability policies in March of 2019 as a result of mercury spills at various mail processing plants throughout the country. The Postal Service made notable changes to its Publication 52,…

 Continue reading

NPMHU: COVID-19 Test Kits in the Mail

USPS Issues Mandatory Stand Up Talk July 8, 2020 (pdf) Please find linked above, a copy of the above reference document from the Postal Service regarding COVID-19 test kits in the mail. According to the Postal Service, they have partnered with several manufacturers, vendors, and laboratories to ship virus and vaccine test kits to a…

 Continue reading

USPS: Restrictions for shipping sanitizers, wipes

The Postal Service wants employees to know there are specific shipping restrictions for hand sanitizers and disinfecting wipes that contain alcohol. As result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the organization is seeing an increase in the number of customers attempting to ship hand sanitizers and disinfecting wipes, which are widely used to help prevent transmission…

 Continue reading