After agreement with airport security and the Lyon airport customs police, we have set in place a document which serves as an accompanying letter when you are travelling home with your dewars or crystallisation trays.  The letter (in French) must be signed by the person transporting the samples and the ESRF Biosafety Engineer.  The English letter is a copy for your information. 

The form will be delivered to scientists only after verification by the safety officer that the dry shippers and dewars comply with IATA regulations and airport authority constrains.  Therefore, please contact the Safety Engineer sufficiently in advance of your departure to allow these verifications to be made.  Note that dewars cannot be taken on-board the plane as hand luggage, and they will only be accepted in the hold as long as the dewars and the cases in which they are contained conform to IATA regulations.  Transport cases that do not conform to IATA regulations include mushroom shipping containers. The ESRF will not provide airport forms for dewars transported in containers that do not conform to these regulations.

Attention: This letter for the airport security is only valid for going back from the ESRF to your home institute. For problems during your travel to the ESRF, please contact the safety office in your home institute. If you have any other problems with biological samples travelling from France to your home country, please inform the ESRF Biosafety Engineer.

Whenever possible it is recommended to ship the samples by courier (e.g. FEDEX, DHL, ....) to your home country.

When you pass via Lyon, Grenoble or Geneva airports an accompanying letter for biological or chemical samples which is stamped and signed by the ESRF Safety Group is mandatory.  Otherwise the letter will be refused.  This applies for all samples with no risk.