When you're shipping Diagnostic Specimens in hot weather, that may destroy or decrease the diagnostic quality of a shipped sample. To help avoid that, please consider:
Time
Ship overnight
Prolonged delivery times keep samples in the hot environment longer.
Do not ship over the weekend or holidays.
Temperature
Pack cold packs and absorbent material on the bottom of the insulated shipper to collect moisture
Can also place cold packs in a sealed plastic bag.
Wrap the cold packs so that any moisture is absorbed as they melt.
Cold packs should not be enclosed in the same bag as samples.
Shipping containers should be leakproof.
Using only cardboard results in weakened boxes that may tear.
Paperwork should be packaged separately from samples in a leakproof plastic bag to keep dry and clean.
Exposure
Provide protection to the samples by layering
Use an insulated shipping container – a cardboard box with a Styrofoam box inside
Fill dead space in the box with bulk material to provide additional insulation
Keep the samples centered in the box to avoid the warmer sides
