[CH] Fw: Us Seed irradiation
Chilli Grower (chilli@organicgardenerau.com)
Sun, 20 Jan 2002 09:40:57 +0800
Us Seed irradiation
Thought y'all might be interested.
I plagiarized this from Victory Seeds Newsletter.
We're good at that down under.
Marc from Austruckinfalia
chilli@organicgardenerau.com
MAIL IRRADIATION UPDATE
I am including a copy of a memo confirming information that I received
from the U.S. Postal Service as well as from news releases. Basically,
it will not be a problem, at least in the foreseeable future, to use the
mail as an economical and safe method for delivering seeds. This is
great news. Note: ASTA is the American Seed Trade Association.
TO: ASTA Representatives
FROM: Drew Kinder, President
SUBJECT: Update on Irradiation Policies of the U.S. Postal Service
The American Seed Trade Association met with representatives of the U.S.
Postal Service on January 7 to discuss seed industry concerns. ASTA
has been following the procedures and policies by the U.S. government to
combat bio-terrorism in the mail. Many ASTA members have been in direct
contact with Association staff to discuss possible outcomes and their
effect on members who routinely ship seeds through the mail for testing
and commerce.
The purpose of the meeting was to listen and learn from the U.S. Postal
Service on the status of mail sanitization efforts and to answer our
specific questions related to how seeds we ship will be safeguarded. I
am pleased to report that the meeting was positive and the following
points can be shared with ASTA members.
"h Only mail that has been or will be irradiated is the mail that was in
the Postal Service's Brentwood and Trenton facilities at the time they
were closed.
"h Current mail addressed to zip codes 202xx 205xx in Washington, DC is
being irradiated. (Examples would include the zip codes for the U.S.
House of Representatives which is 20515, the U.S. Senate at 20510, the
White House at 20500, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture at 20250.)
"h Irradiation of letters from Brentwood and Trenton has been completed
in facilities in Lima, Ohio and Bridgeport, New Jersey.
"h Mail that has been irradiated is placed in a plastic bag and an
accompanying letter advising the recipient of irradiation is included.
"h There are no new current plans to irradiate any other mail, unless a
new anthrax contamination (or other bio-terrorism) is discovered.