Dangerous residue on shipping boxes

Hi All ;  
The following just was posted on Liz's cat group.  I felt it was important enough to share.

Thank you for sharing this, Thomas!!! Both our pups have a 'thing' for chewing on boxes, so we try to keep them up anyway - but, sometimes, we're not exactly vigilant about it. We will be, now!!

Just be aware that as presented, this has the structure of one of those urban-legend type horror stories that's deliberately crafted to go viral without being verifiable.  The viral "attack surface" is people's very real caution and concern for their pets, and the inherent "sounds like it could be true" plausibility of the tale.  Posted as the report of somebody with (at least in the viral package we saw, may be different in the original place of publication) a generic short name, and no identifying features (geographical location, name of vet office, identification of the toxin, et cetera) that could make it verifiable by traditional reporting methods (contact multiple people involved and have them confirm or offer additional details).  

I am not saying the story's not true or that the warning isn't legitimate.  I genuinely have no opinion about the underlying truth of the matter; there's not enough solid detail to allow me to form such an opinion. But we've see this format thousands of times since the beginning of the internet, and it's such a perfect example of the viral cautionary tale that I wanted call attention to the structure of the thing.  

I have set for myself the rule of not participating in constructed virality when I can catch it in the act, because I don't like being the servant of a meme crafted by unknown persons for unknown reasons.  (For instance, was this story spread by cat lovers, or by people who want -- perhaps for very good reasons -- to make Amazon look worse?)  I can't tell whether this viral package is deliberately constructed to be such, or whether it's a good-faith accidental viral creation (those happen too).  Either way, it set off my structural warning bells, so I wanted to share that.

There are a lot of toxins and stuff that can get on parcels during shipping.  Especially if it crossed the border as they do sometimes spray to stop organic contaminants.  There's also dust and crap from the engines that can get on the parcels.  This varies from port to port, crossing to crossing, and method of shipping.

Interesting that the language of that sounds British was found to have "taken ill".  I know the UK is having one heck of a time with things lately, so it could be.

Canada Post says they spray the sorting stations if there is an outbreak.  I imagine that includes any parcels in that station.  But it's not a regular thing (too expensive).  

The local (to me) health recommendation when handling parcels is to put the packaging in the recycling and to wash the hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and warm water after unpacking.  But this is not new to 2020.  

So... possible.  But probably not every parcel.  

r ranson wrote:
Interesting that the language of that sounds British was found to have "taken ill".  I know the UK is having one heck of a time with things lately, so it could be.

But then again, Marnie is not a very British name for a cat!  

I did a brief stint in a distribution warehouse for a large retailor. The chemical odor that wafted from some of the shipping containers was terrible. I don't know, it might have just been the smell of all the shrink wrap or inks from the printed product boxes but it was bad. It's why I do not use cardboard in my gardens.

We ordered some workout gear that came packed in oddly stinky cardboard a couple of years ago.  We decided that caution was in order and decided to burn the cartons instead of composting them.  Those things went up so fast and hot that it was scary.  If you had that indoors the house would like be a total loss.  I don't know what was in them, but it was terrifying.  I can't imagine what it would be like with even more chemicals sprayed on them..  

Not just carboard. We had an employee pick up and move a pallet, where the pallet touched her inner forearm it broke out in a blistery rash. Was it something sprayed on the pallet?, something that leaked on to the pallet from a previous load? We'll never know

Our present crisis aside, warehouses are regularly sprayed to control pests.