The Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010 resulted in the release of over 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2011 CES Mail Communications, Inc. was retained as a vendor under a NIEHS subcontract for kit fulfillment, inventory control, storage, and distribution services required to study approximately 33,000 persons who participated in the oil spill clean-up. This long term health study ordered over 11,000 field examination thermal kit units to five states, over two years, to be distributed on-demand by field agents for a three hour home exam. A private materials management firm designed the units for storage, inventory management, and assembly at CES – in a rolling week to week bulk distribution to 50 field agents.

Each kit contained a range of specimen collection and exam supplies fulfilled into labeled bags titled and packed in order of the exam’s procedures. CES maintained a database of each tube and supply making up each home visit kit by participant, agent, its lot, serial number and expiration date. Gift cards were included in the kits and were coded and tracked for receipt and security. Weekly orders were sent to CES each Monday for shipment within 3-5 days, based on field agent request.  No two orders were the same, and CES ensured a seamless distribution of kits and supply orders consisting of over a million time-sensitive collection supplies – uniquely paired to each participant.

The Sister Study is conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, one of the National Institutes of Health, of the US Department of Health and Human Services. From 2003 to 2009, more than 50,000 women across the US and Puerto Rico, who were between ages 35–74 and whose sister had breast cancer, joined this landmark research effort to find causes of breast cancer. Because of their shared environment, genes, and experiences, studying sisters provides a greater chance of identifying risk factors that may help us find ways to prevent breast cancer.

CES Mail Communications, Inc. was retained by one of our largest partners to fulfill a rolling order of over a million printed materials for personalized box kits for study participants. Each box was sectionalized into study areas and each section contained personalized forms, surveys and specimen collection labels totaling 38 unique matches per kit. Weekly ID numbers were submitted for the following week’s orders; at peak demand over 900 kits were being ordered weekly by a  private materials management firm and were built by a dedicated CES team. Over the four year distribution period, there were various changes and revisions made to the product resulting in CES developing tight order controls and quality checks to respond to the smallest of changes impacting data collection. At study’s end, nearly 60,000 units were built and delivered on time, all with a zero error rate.