Dangerous Substances Monitoring and Alert Group (DSMAG) was established to assist in the awareness and detection of Fentanyl travelling within the postal network, and to assist posts in handling and preventing serious incidents arising. The scope of the Dangerous Substances Monitoring and Alert Group (DSMAG) is broader than just Fentanyl and covers any suspicious substances, powders, liquids and illegal goods, e.g. batteries, weapons, etc. travelling through postal operations and their potential for harm to postal employees and customers.

How does it work?

DSMAG helps member posts lessen the risk of dangerous substances through their operations in several ways:

  • Alerting of potential risks through active exchange of information and experience on the circulation of dangerous substances across the network. The active dialogue amongst the postal experts allows participants to learn from each other and to exchange on expertise, best practices and smart solutions. This allows quick adoption of new potential solutions to ensure the safety and security of the postal personnel and consumers.
  • Raising awareness, exchanging best practices and enhancing the knowledge about the dangerous effects of certain substances through the development of a process within DSMAG to continuously share experiences, increase awareness among members, and provide training on how to handle dangerous substances. This knowledge base will also include input from customs and security authorities.
  • Aligning and harmonising the processes amongst the members through a centrally coordinated network of security specialists and managers.

Benefits

The actions of DSMAG will help posts to address some of the issues identified in the survey held in January 2019, including improving:

• Awareness on the issue of Fentanyl and other dangerous substances circulating via the posts, and the risks involved in their circulation;
• Intelligence, data and assessment of the risks;
• Strategies, standardised procedures and policies in place to ensure the safety of postal workers;
• Best practices exchange.

Moreover, one of the priorities of DSMAG is to involve the customs and security authorities and make sure information is shared quickly. As part of the monitoring process, IPC will circulate quarterly to all members a simple questionnaire, reminding them to compile data and report information received from the customs or other security authorities.

DSMAG currently has 13 IPC members and aims to expand to more posts.

More information

For more information about this service, please contact [email protected].

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