NALC: Employee safety paramount following suspicious letter report

From the National Assoc. of Letter Carriers – 3.19.15

The following Mandatory Safety Talk was provided to the NALC. National business agents have been asked to distribute the information to all branch contacts and to follow up to make sure that the mandatory talks are in fact given. Please advise NALC Director of Safety and Health Manuel L. Peralta Jr. of any problems.

Mandatory Stand-Up Talk
March 17, 2015
Employee safety paramount following suspicious letter report

Late Tuesday afternoon, the Postal Service was made aware of a suspicious parcel addressed to the President of the United States (POTUS).

Upon opening the package a sealed container containing a liquid was discovered. On-site testing resulted in a presumptive positive finding for cyanide.  Further analysis to confirm or refute this preliminary finding now is being conducted in a specially equipped laboratory.

The container was not leaking upon discovery; and the envelope showed no signs that any leakage had occurred previously.

The absence of any signs of leakage is reassuring – indicating that no postal employees were exposed while the envelope passed through the mail system.

If anyone were exposed to enough cyanide to produce adverse health effects, symptoms would be evident within minutes or hours.  Symptoms could be minor (e.g., dizziness and headache) or serious (e.g.,  convulsions and loss of consciousness).

Additional information about Cyanide is available on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

In light of these events, we urge everyone to stay vigilant and remember our PACKAGE, PEOPLE, PLAN suspicious mail message:

  • PACKAGE: Don’t handle suspicious mail. Isolate it.
  • PEOPLE: Clear people from the area. Immediately notify your supervisor.
  • PLAN: Contact the Inspection Service. Follow our facility emergency plan.

More details are available on the Suspicious Mail poster, which are on our bulletin boards. (Insert your facility’s location of board displaying Poster 286.)

We know this is a challenging time. If you wish to speak to an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) counselor, you can call 800?EAP-4-YOU, or TTY for the hearing impaired, 877-492-7341.

Our top concern at this moment is your safety and the safety of all our employees, as well as the safety of the public and the U.S. Mail. As the detailed laboratory testing proceeds, we will keep you updated.

Thank you for your attention.

Click here to download the stand-up talk document as a PDF.

NALC News

One Response to "NALC: Employee safety paramount following suspicious letter report"

  1. Well, just yesterday, a number of small parcels at our station were separated because of a “white powdery substance” on them. The supervisor said they would be put in plastic bags and delivered anyway. No testing, no sequestering, and no instructions to mail handlers or carriers to take precautions or remedial action (washing, etc.).

    Many carriers were frustrated and angry, but the boss said it was his decision…

    The supervisor is a good person, but I personally think he was damned if he took proper action, and damned if he did not.

    I really think upper management would have been on him if he had not basically ignored the issue, which I find more disturbing than the possible poison…

    Safety, as a rule, is something talked about and promoted, but usually not allowed to happen because of time constraints, regardless of what they say.

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