The post room can often be the busiest part of any organisation, and a large quantity of mail can often be dealt with in the course of an average working day. With a high volume of mail being processed it can be easy to disregard a letter or package that may be intended to cause damage to a company or to a person within an organisation.

However, there are measures we can take to increase our awareness regarding some of the key features of these packages.

According the FBI, one of the most common features on a suspicious package is the address. The parcel may not be addressed to any specific person in the organisation rather just a position, or may have the name of a person but their job title is incorrect; misspelled words may also be present. Generally there will also be an absence of a return address. The postage amount on the parcel may also exceed the required amount, to ensure the package reaches its intended destination.

The overall appearance of the parcel may be a good indicator as to its true contents. Extra precautions should be taken where a parcel is bulky or rigid, over-packed using excessive amounts of string or tape, lopsided or uneven, has oily stains or crystallization visible on the packaging material, has protruding wires or is giving off a strange odour.

The most important issue at this stage is that there is an effective emergency procedure in place whereby staff have been made aware of how to react and what action to take. The first thing to do is put this procedure into place and immediately alert the emergency services, giving them as much information as possible regarding the location of the parcel within the building, it’s shape, appearance, how and when it was delivered, who has come into contact with it and any other relevant details, such as presence of a powder, rattling, or other sounds. If the parcel did not arrive as part of the normal mail delivery and was delivered by courier any information regarding height, build, hair colour, eye colour, type of vehicle used, registration number etc. should also be communicated to the authorities.

When drawing up the emergency plan ensure that the building can be evacuated away from the part where the suspicious parcel is located, in general this tends to be the reception area or the post room. No person should re-enter the building once the emergency plan has been activated, turn off any air conditioning in the building and close all doors on exit. If there is a powder or liquid of any description visible on the parcel any person who came into contact with the substance should be isolated until the arrival of the emergency services, who will be equipped to deal with biological or chemical agents. Any person who came into contact with the parcel should thoroughly wash their hands to prevent any chemical being absorbed in to the blood stream. They should not attempt to remove any clothing until instructed to do so by the emergency services as this could result in the chemical or biological substance being distributed into the air and increasing exposure.

Fortunately, this incidence of these parcels are not too common, but that is not to say they do not happen, so we need to be prepared and have our procedure in place, and practiced, so the response time is kept to a minimum, which should help to reduce the amount of damage that could be caused, and increase the protection of human life.