Hi traders, we have been talking about some upcoming changes at the post office over in Heirlooms and you all may want to take a peek at it.
http://davesgarden.com/showthread/126882.html
While the practice probably won't be implimented nationwide,it looks like it still could cause us some trouble.
Irradiation of seeds at the post office
Hi Melody,
Being the latest recipient of the RR caused me to panic a bit when I read your post this morning
I read an article just now about irradiating "sprouting" seeds to kill harmful bacteria. Is this the same irradiating the post office is planning? According to their website (usps) they are planning to send electron beams thru mail. Is that irradiating? I'm not sure if there is cause for us to be concerned or not. At any rate the article at department of health and human service
(http://www.purefood.org/irrad/sproutrule.cfm) implies that irradiating sprouts won't prevent them from sprouting. therefor the seeds are still viable. does that make sense?
What do you think?
Chris
???
From my understanding (I do not know how correct this is) but there will only be a few things such as foil that you can ot send. That it will not hurt seeds. Will try and find out.
There's been an on-going discussion about this on the Garden Writer's list, as well as other places.
In fact, at the levels of irridation proposed (i.e., that strong enough to kill anthrax spores), seeds and plants will be killed. The mail-order seed industry is, as you can imagine, very concerned. The irridation levels will also fog unexposed film, and have negative effects on some other products as well.
Wrapping them in foil won't help. According to the spokesman from one nuclear facility, it would take a 1/2" of lead to stop the proposed irridation level.
So does this mean we should stop swaping/ordering for awhile ? Please keep us updated , I for one am a little more that concerned for what I send and recieve.
Thanks,
NOWeedSZ
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/mailirradiation011030.html I'm thinking the postal service will have to come up with a way to keep items serperated that will be damaged from irradiation. Perhaps bringing packages in and showing the contents being mailed to a window clerk for approval. I'm sure they'll have to come up with some method to keep from damaging certain items.
Bummer.....But, at what level and what size PO's would this affect? Doesn't all mail go through centralized mail distribution? And at what point would the radiation take place?
"eyes"
My understanding is that irridation will take place at the recieving station, whatever that means.
Given the cost of the equipment, I doubt that every PO will be equiped with it.
This is one of the many practical problems the Postal Service needs to work out before going ahead with this ill-thoughtout plan.
I just read this in another forum.. I had nothing to do with writing it.. just passing it on but it doesn't sound good but few things sound good lately....
Just got this from an ex-Gp'er about irradiation of the mail.
Dan Heims of Terra Nova Nurseries (you know - the guy who introduces all of those
absolutely gorgeous heucheras) called Doug Huston. head of the State of Oregon
Department of Energy (Nuclear Safety) to get the facts. And here they are.
As Dan warned us - you'd better sit down.
My (Dan's)worst fears are being confirmed. He is talking exposures in Krads and had
even heard of a Megarad dosage.
This will kill:
All seed
All plants
All animals and pets
This will scramble:
Credit Cards
Computers, PDAs
All magnetic media
This will expose:
Any undeveloped film.
My suggestion of a lead-lined film pouch for protection was put aside. Two INCHES
of lead would be required to protect from these dosages.
We will persevere, but until this lunacy ends -use UPS or Fed-Ex or DHL.(then again,
how many tainted packages would it take to force them to use the same equipment?)
According to another source, "a 40 million dollar order for 10 machines has been
placed by the postal service and the first will be delivered in 30 days. I am sure
Washington D.C. will get priority."
I have confirmed with the Post Office that the order HAS been placed. The only
uncertainty is when it will arrive and be ready to start scanning.
Conrad Richter, vice president of Richters Herbs in Ontario called the Titan Scan
Technology Company to get the facts straight from those who manufacture and sell
irradiation equipment. This is what he has to say:
This afternoon I spoke to a technician at Titan Scan Technologies, one of the leading
suppliers of electron beam equipment. He said that because anthrax spores are
particularly resistant to sterilization, the dose needed is among the highest used in
industrial and medical sterilization -- 42 kilograys. At this dose, he said, there is no
question that seeds (and hence plants) will be killed."
For the time being, the best alternative for seed companies is to use the alternative
shippers - FedEx, UPS, etc. That means that shipping costs will rise - but that's better
than mutated or dead seeds and plants. While there may be nothing dangerous about
a weirdly striped petunia, we might have reason to fear an odd - or even
innocent-looking head of lettuce planted from scanned seeds.
Who knows if the terrorists - or whoever is at work here - won't then start infecting
larger packages? Then nothing mentioned in the above post can be shipped through
the US mail safely.
My own gut feeling is that FedEx and UPS will not be targets. Part of the plan as I see
it is to strike at government entities - and the post office is one of those. Their acts so
far have cost the post office in workers, dollars and lost business. The more people
start turning to UPS and the others, the bigger a loser our post office system becomes.
But that's just my feeling - and I am not very skilled in thinking like a terrorist.
Our plant orders may be in danger, but they, too, are not targets but rather are
unintentional victims.
Be thankful if you got your orders in early.
Start thinking in terms of neighborhood and community seed and plant exchanges. Use
this as an opportunity to bring your own community closer together.
While recent events might give a gardener pause - but they can't keep us down. Just
make sure you keep informed about the latest developments and don't panic
unnecessarily. Fear is our worst enemy
well, so much for buying plants and seeds on ebay anymore. Of course, we have a short window to get things done fast. :(
I wouldn't get too worried yet. I think the irradation machines may be limited to a few of the larger offices. I think it will depend on how much money Uncle Sam is willing to fork over to the PO. I've read they don't plan on irradiating mail from businesses and I'd immagine that seed companies will be able to get around it. It's the hobbiest (like us) that might have some worries.
sue, how do we know if our mail goes through the larger offices? Everything in GA goes through the BMC.
Well tiG there's no way of knowing how they'll handle this yet. In fact.... I don't think the PO has a clue how they'll handle it either. The only way I can see them actually eliminating the threat of bacteria in the mail is to irradiate ALL the mail before it enters any facility. This just doesn't seem physically possible and I can't see them trucking mail from little offices to be irradiated at the big offices. Whose to say that Joe Terrorist from DC won't drive his anthrax laced letters up to east boon town Maine to mail his letters? I can't see how this will work one way or another. The ball is rolling though and we'll just have to see how it end up.