An Post not accepting dna packages

Cunning Stunt

hi

has anyone had issues with An Post not accepting DNA swab samples? They refused to take my sisters package that she needs to send back to myheritage.com for analysis. They said they are not accepting those packages..

How did you guys send yours in?

thanks

Hermy

I don't think I've heard of that before.

Did they say why they weren't accepting it?

Dublinandy3

They accepted ours, though this was a few years ago. Not sure why they wouldn't though.

Dial Hard

If this is a new policy for them it's going to have a huge impact on the HSE's free sexual health testing service. All of those samples are sent through the post.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122748785#Comment_122748785

And bowel test samples that get sent through the post.

Not that I don't believe the OP was told this I don't think the info was incorrect.

cobham

I have one to resend… last one rejected a couple of months ago. I thought it was freepost so I would lob it into the parcel crate or even into letter box and bypass Post office agent?

Cunning Stunt

The lady at An Post asked my sister what it was, she answered a dna swab. She said that bevause it contains a little vial it would be detected by xray, removed & destroyed?! They cannot take it she said.

Cunning Stunt

Its a German address - can she chance it with buying a few stamps? dpnt think it weighs much at all

Cunning Stunt

Ok she wrote to An Post and I believe the problem is the interpretation of "liquid" in the 2 little vials. They are prohibited from sending liquid outside of Ireland. There is only a tiny bit of test liquid. I told her to go to another post office.

pinkypinky

Can you clarify that this was definitely an Ancestry test? Those tests go back to an address in Ireland, which there should be no difficulty with. 23andMe go to the Netherlands. I'm not sure what country MyHeritage tests go back to. But they batch ship them from those locations by couriers to the labs in the USA. In all these cases, the box has a pre-printed postage label so you can just put them in the postbox. It doesn't need stamps.

I've had trouble sending kits back to FamilyTree DNA in America for the reasons described. Their packages don't have postage included and they go in the regular post, classed as a "small packet". I made contact with both FTDNA and An Post and gather the difficulty is with Aer Lingus planes which carry post to America. They cannot transport human material.

granturismo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122748928#Comment_122748928

That An Post employee is making it up. It is possible the package will be xrayed at an incoming airport, this probably wont degrade the DNA sample and if no contraband is found customs should repackage and send on.

On a different note, I think these Ancestry type companies have not provided the correctly labelled packaging for returning samples.

For transport by road and air, saliva samples and other medical samples should be marked 'Exempt Human Specimen' unless there is a suspicion they are infectious.

Infectious samples are prohibited by An Post https://www.anpost.com/Post-Parcels/Sending/Sending-Guide/Prohibited-Items

• Infectious substances like medical samples, biological samples or serums - these are samples from patients with known infections or where there is more than 'minimial likelihood' that pathogens are present.

I think all these swabs should be marked 'Exempt Human Specimen' - means a human sample transported for routine testing not related to the diagnosis of an infectious disease where there is a minimal likelihood that pathogens are present and when packaged to prevent any leakage (triple layer packaging) and marked with “Exempt human specimen”. These are allowed by An Post. This is how a lot of samples from GPs and vets are sent by courier for analysis.

Ancestry and other companies should provide correctly marked envelopes/packages for returning samples. Couriers transport Exempt packages and Infectious samples by road and air, individual airlines are allowed to decide what type of hazardous packages they dont want to carry which might explain why Aer lingus dont.

looksee

I posted mine to 23&me (Europe) earlier this year no problem.

Cunning Stunt

My apologies, kit was from MyHeritage, not Ancestory. package was with label that came with the kit - an address in Germany. Lady asked if my sister would mind telling her whats in it. She said a dna swab, the lady said 'the one with the little vial?' Yes...

'we cant send that - I could take a chance and send it for you but it will be found and destroyed- it wont even be sent back to you'.

So she told my sister to get onto MyHeritage and find out how other Irish customers are sending them, because AnPost cant take them.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122749567#Comment_122749567

It seems very strange that Aer Lingus say they can't transport human material when they repatriate human remains on a regular basis.

As well as, y'know, tens of thousands of passengers made of that very material every day.

Pretty sure they stopped carrying post a number of years ago anyway.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122750327#Comment_122750327

it’s probably because human samples for testing may need to be kept on dry ice or with some other cooling agent used like gel packs. When it arrives at destination airport if nobody is there to pick it up immediately it may need to go to cold storage….too much effort and ‘special handling’….

Human remains generally don’t need that. Regulate cargo compartment temp perhaps…

pinkypinky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122750280#Comment_122750280

Will be interested to hear what MyHeritage says about this.

Lena11

Did the An Post lady say when this rule came in?

I returned a MyHeritage sample last October, no issue - just filled in the declarations as per the instructions with the kit. I returned an Ancestry kit June this year and last month I sent a FTDNA package.

The FTDNA package was the only one I had a bit of trouble with. The Post office official in my small local post office could not decide if it should be declared as a Commercial sample or what the value should be set at so he sent me to a bigger post office - they had no issues registering it and the company in America received it in 4 days later

Cunning Stunt

Seems to be anything going out of the country

pinkypinky

Do you have to pay postage for it to MyHeritage?

I'm wondering what would have happened if you just dropped it in the postbox.

Mullinabreena

You have to pay to myheritage.com alright its in Germany. I just said documentation and samples when asked a few months ago. Just be vague enough, no problems.

fun loving criminal

I ordered a DNA kit from my heritage a few weeks ago for fun and I had to send it to Germany in the envelope provided.

I read the post about what was going on with an post here not accepting liquids.

I decided to chance it anyways. I paid for postage online and because the printed label was too big to stick on the envelope provided, I just popped the smaller envelope into a bigger one and stuck my postage label on it and sent it off to Germany.

The lab received my sample a few days ago. So took about a week and a half to get to the lab.

FamousBelgian

Sorry to bump old thread but thought I'd add my experience when this happened to me. In the end I retried and the item got sent and I got my results and nothing disastrous happened.

Long story: I ordered a kit from FTDNA and was trying to post it back to Houston in my local post office in January when I ran into the same problem as the OP. Even for a letter (postage 6 euro or so) they have to fill in a label with a description of the contents. When they typed in DNA sample they get a classification that is banned from regular mail. They said it's a recent rule that liquids can't be accepted and I'd need to use a courier service (at least e50). I knew I'd just try again so I went home and prepaid for a registered letter via the An Post site. When I entered 'DNA sample' I got a classification which included 'chemical reagents'. I then entered 'genealogy test' and got a classification which looked less threatening. Put the FTDNA envelope in a bigger one, fixed the label and handed it in in another, smaller post office branch. It was in Houston within a week and I got my results less than two weeks later. Registered post cost e13.

By the way, it was a Y-DNA37 with Family Finder test and not really worth the trouble for me. I really didn't learn anything more than the combined autosomal tests from my father and maternal aunt.