Suitability of a transport box for blood sample shipment over a long period

Abstract

Background Safety transport boxes are increasingly used to ship laboratory specimens but there is little information on their capacity to maintain suitable transportation temperatures. Materials and methods Inner temperature was assessed using a commercially available transport box during an 8-h transportation period in the heat. Results Temperature stability was unsatisfactory during approximately 64% of the transportation time (i.e., from 125 to 450 min). Conclusions Transport boxes might be unsuitable for shipping specimens over long periods.