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.