HowTo – Shipping sample aliquots to DEC Air Lab

Priority: medium
Updating: very mature from prior projects same personnel

SWL makes aliquots of field samples, and ship them frozen to the DEC Air lab.

Change log:

Date	Who	Comment
2021 02 26	sp17	Created zeroth version
2021 03 09	Sp17	Reasonably good version reflecting past practices
2021 10 01	Sp17	Version to accompany QAPP, mainly reformatting headings.
2022 08 18	Sp17	Minor update. DEC lab has confirmed the use of 50 mL centrifuge tubes for aliquots. Bump to 90%.
2022 05 31	Sp17	Minor update. Include sequential sample numbering. Bump to 95%.
2023 06 15	Sp17	Convert to Markdown.

This spans the activities from selection of samples to send through acknowledgment of receipt of the samples at the DEC Air lab. From that point, the DEC Air lab’s procedures for storing and testing samples kick in.

1. Objectives

Provide NYS DEC Air Lab with sample aliquots for pesticide analysis.
Maintain sample integrity throughout.

2. Quality assurance aspects

Vulnerabilties to protect against:

Samples can warm during transport. Cumulative warming in a degree day sense is the aspect to minimize.
Sample containers can get mixed up during preparation of aliquots.

Prevention:

Include a manifest listing all samples in a shipped batch.
Heavily insulated shipping ice chests. Ice packs included. Samples start the shipment process frozen.
Only ship on the day before the DEC lab staff are expecting them. Maintain rapport from before ship-out day though the end of the ship receiving day.
Watch the express shipment tracking from both ends.
DEC checks temperature at receipt: are they frozen, what is the temperature via an IR temperature gun?
Sample container choice includes robustness criteria. Container types and volumes are specified by DEC Air lab.
Extra insulation and shock-prevention via bubble wrap around containers.

Recovery: - There is sufficient water collected to make at least two replacement samples if some are damaged or lost during shipping.

Logging:

Copies of emails between Cornell and DEC.
Sample manifest is implicitly part of the lab log. Sample shipping is noted in the lab log.
DEC lab will have a receiving log. This is not duplicated at Cornell.
Checking samples against the manifest by Cornell before sealing, and by DEC after receipt.

3. Steps per shipment

Maintain ongoing rapport with lab about when DEC Air lab can accept a shipment, via which express carriers.
Agree on a day for shipping with Air lab. Allow time for thawing samples, making aliquots, and refreezing the aliquots (all at Cornell).
Make a shipping manifest for this batch in a word processor or spreadsheet file. The manifest includes the matrix of groundwater or lake, and indicates any sample attribute that may trigger a need to filter, such as suspended particles or deep color. r Compose and print aliquot labels to match. Labels are printed on a laser printer on waterproof labels, Avery 5520. Put labels onto the aliquot containers while they are warm and dry. Email the shipping manifest to DEC Lab so they know how many samples they are receiving. Also mark sequence numbers on sample containers and include those in the manifest; sequential numbers are simpler to track than the multi-field sample ID (site, sampling point within site, date). Sequential numbers are assigned in the tabular database based generally on the order of sample collection (the order is not critical, the only critical aspect is to have no gaps in numbering).
Completely thaw one container of each original sample intended to be part of a shipped batch.
Make aliquots; shake original sample container and pour. Aliquots are in new 50 mL polypropylene conical centrifuge tubes, two per original sample. Aliquots pairs are labeled as A and B, and are simply extra volume, split across containers in case one container is lost during transport or at the lab. Freeze the aliquots for at least one day before shipping.
Pack aliquots in racks matching container size and ice chest size with bubble wrap, for cushioning and extra insulation, frozen ice packs, a ziplock-bagged printed sample manifest, and a prepaid return shipping label for the ice chest also in ziplock. Pack large batches in heavily insulated ice chests, smaller batches in similar small ice chests. Seal the ice chests sturdily with heavy packaging table around the narrow and long dimensions of the ice chests.
Schedule pickup by express shipping company; mark the ice chest as specified by the shipping company. (We separately mark the ice chests with return shipping addresses in case they go astray.) We use next afternoon service to keep the handling time within 24 hours.
Verify that the package has been picked up at Cornell via the shipper’s tracking system and the absence of the package from the mail room. Notify DEC lab with the tracking number.
DEC Air Lab: Verify that samples have been received in good condition (check temperature via infrared gun if they thawed) and that samples match manifest. Notify the Cornell contact about status.

4. Problems in the past and how resolved

Problem	Cause	Resolution
Samples delivered to wrong location, nearby building.	Shipping company inexperienced person did not interpret the address correctly.	Detected via comment on express shipment tracking. DEC staff tracked down the shipment based on delivery comment and retrieved it. Samples were in good condition. We did not make any changes based on this since we detected the problem early enough via handshaking between Cornell and Air lab.
Samples delivered to wrong address.	Poor addressing at Cornell	Detection by samples never reaching lab. Responses: Made and sent new aliquots. Tighter oversight of Cornell support staff. Make sure that the express shipper is not changed to one not agreed, and that the earlier successful addresses get reused.
Fragile glass containers broken during shipment.	Routine rough handling of package by shipping company	Detected via glass fragments and loose ice or liquid in delivered package. We made new aliquots to replace lost ones. We changed to much less fragile containers. We include shock protection via bubblewrap inside the ice chests. We make sure to collect enough sample volume to send three full aliquot sets to DEC for any sample, allowing for two losses.