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Dear Andrew, just to add that the ESRF safety group have gone to some lengths to help in avoiding problems with customs at Lyon. Here are the relevant pages on the ESRF web site http://www.esrf.fr/Infrastructure/Safety/Experiments/Biology_Experiments Sigrid Kozielski the ESRF Biology safety officer is also available to discuss with users/problems and give advice and is indeed looking for feedback to even further improve the handling of material through Lyon customs. Martin -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Leslie A. Sent: mardi 9 mai 2006 11:26 To: [email protected] *** For details on how to be removed from this list visit the *** *** CCP4 home page http://www.ccp4.ac.uk *** Many thanks to all those who responded. It appears that we are by no means the first to have this problem, suggesting it is not necessarily linked to the use of pucks rather than canes. This is also suggested by the fact that others have been shipping pucks (from UK to ESRF) for quite a few months without problems. Unfortunately, there is also no easy solution to the problem. A number of people take the dewars with them, either on the train (Eurostar) or on the plane. We used to do the latter (Easy Jet from Stansted), carrying the dewar through security to the gate and down to the plane, where it was loaded in the hold. This requires notifying Stansted security in advance and showing Easy Jet the IATA regulations and a copy of a letter we obtained from Easy Jet a few years ago saying that it was OK to put these on the plane. We also took letters signed by the head of division at LMB saying that the samples were non-pathalogical and non-hazardous. This generally worked OK, but we found that on the return flight customs at Lyons were much more difficult to deal with (although they never refused us outright, they have done so to others). It was precisely to get away from the hassle that we started using Fedex, and up until now this has worked very well. Manfred Weiss described a temperature logger: F. Ridoutt, C. Mueller-Dieckmann, P. A. Tucker and M. S. Weiss. An automated temperature-monitoring system for dry-shippers. J. Appl. Cryst., 2004, 37,477-480. which I was not aware of, which would at least tell you if the dewar has been opened, but does not help with the consequences ! Various groups include documentation with the dewar describing the contents and stating the importance of not opening them, which may well help (if the staff bother to read them !). Andrew Leslie and Matt Bowler
