Is our mail system safe?

[duforsure]

Are they doing anything to protect our mail from being virus infected? Our Water Systems?

[hlthe2b]

1. Our water systems? Chlorine at routine levels readily kill enveloped RNA viruses, as this one is.

Paper is likely to only hold potential for viability for a few hours (per the recent NIH studies released a few days ago). So it would appear to be at very low risk given even cross-town mail would be a day or more 'old.'

If you are worried that the mail carrier somehow contaminated it, wear gloves to open mail, discarding the outer envelope immediately. The interior should be fine.

[marlakay]

3. My mail carrier wears gloves

I feel sorry for her she looks scared this past week and never smiles back anymore.

My ups guys still are out happily making deliveries.

[hlthe2b]

4. She is wise to do so, even if transmission via paper or boxes is unlikely.

[marlakay]

5. I would if I had her job

Its times like this I am really grateful for being retired. Fingers crossed about my older daughter who is top manager at large car dealership and normally deals with problems daily and now this.

There are hundreds of employees, i asked her today how many were out? Only one older one and one pregnant one and she has no problem with that.

You would think who would buy a car or get it serviced now, but apparently they still are at least now. She in in sonoma county CA.

[blogslut]

2. It lives for a good while on metal, glass and plastic

I would be more concerned for the safety of the people who process and deliver our mail but if you want to spray yours with some Lysol just to be safe, go for it. As for whether or not it's going to contaminate our drinking water, I don't think it transmits that way. I could be wrong.

[Igel]

7. The snarky response is,

"So don't lick your mail or shove it up your, uh, nose."

Yes, it lives for days on non-porous surfaces.

However, while the virus can inject its RNA through a cell membrane, it cannot infect the dead skin cells that comprise the outer layers of our skin, nor can it crawl to a mucous membrane.

After touching anything of unknown provenance, before shoving your fingers into contact with the mucous membrane of your choice, wash your hands.

That mail you're handling bears viruses and filth from any other mail encountered along the way to you.

The risk is low. But it's not zero, for those who need zero risk.

[rurallib]

6. And Fed-Ex and UPS?

Got a package yesterday and argued with myself on whether to touch it or not.

[hunter]

8. I always throw my mail in a box where it can think about itself for a few days.

I remember looking forward to the mail.

Now it's mostly bills, xfinity offers, and threatening letters from medical debt collectors.

[Aquaria]

9. I was still working USPS

During H1N1.

I was the only employee in the district who caught it, and that wasn’t from the mail, but from my visit to a clinic. I had dropped off my friend the transplant survivor for a hematology appointment. Had to use the bathroom while I was there, and some fucking moron was sneezing like crazy at the water fountain outside it as I passed by. And wasn’t even trying to cover his nose during it.

I was sick about a week later. And I’m not talking some sniffles or coughing, but “I can’t breathe I have to decide if I most need to sit on the toilet or stick my head in it right now how did every hole in my body spring a leak think I’m going to die OMG kill me now” sick.

Nobody else around me got it—not my husband, my son, my co-workers or even my friend with the transplant.

But I wasn’t so rude as to sneeze around any of them without even trying to cover it up, either. Unlike that water fountain scumbag.

Most postal workers wear gloves when they handle mail.

Even for those who don’t, the surface of most mail (paper/cardboard) doesn’t hold viruses or bacteria for long. 24 hours is the worst case I’ve seen evidence for.

If you’re that worried about catching something, retrieve your mail with gloves on, and then put the mail in an isolation zone for a day or two before opening it. I toss my mail in a tote bag when I get it at USPS, and then into one of the old buckets from work that I still have:



I wash my tote bag and wipe down the inside of the bucket every couple of weeks, just to be on the safe side. But I otherwise don’t worry about it.

Also: my bucket is a lot cleaner than that one. Still looks as new as the day I got it out of the shrink wrap.