Effective March 14, 2010, the Postal Service™ will revise Publication 52 Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Mail, Exhibit 346.327 to provide the proper packaging standards for nonregulated patient specimens.
With this revision, patient specimens that fall under the nonregulated material category must be properly packaged when presented for mailing and are subject to the packaging standards in DMM 601.17.8.
Publication 52, Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Mail
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3 Hazardous Materials
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34 Mailability by Hazard Class
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346 Toxic Substances and Infectious Substances (Hazard Class 6)
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346.3 Packaging, Marking, Labeling, and Documentation
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346.32 Division 6.2, Infectious Substances
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346.327 Proper Packaging of Mailable Materials
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Exhibit 346.327 Packaging References for Mailable Materials, Infectious Substances (Hazard Class 6, Division 6.2)
[Revise the Patient Specimen entry to replace “n/a” under the Nonregulated column with “346.325”.]
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We will incorporate this revision into the next online update of Publication 52 available via Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com.
— Mailing Standards, Pricing, 2-25-10
