Inspection in Transit

E. A. Burns.

Transit inspection is the inspection of shipments of plants, plant products, and other quarantined articles moving in interstate commerce by mail, express, and freight to determine their compliance with the Federal domestic plant quarantines.

Enforcement of quarantines depends upon two types of knowledge knowledge as to the articles with which the insects or plant diseases are likely to be associated and with which they might be carried, and, secondly, the means of transportation that may be employed in moving the articles from one area to another. Transit inspection is concerned with both.

Transit inspection was inaugurated at a few strategic midwestern railway terminals in 1920 to enforce the white-pine blister rust quarantine. Its importance in enforcing quarantines and preventing the artificial spread of insects and plant diseases was soon recognized, and the work was established by the Congress as an independent project on July 1, 1930.

The activity since has been expanded to include the enforcement of all Federal domestic plant quarantines that regulate the movement of dangerous host material within or from the continental United States.

Authority to conduct inspection is contained in the Plant Quarantine Act of 1912. Under Section io, Paragraph 2, of that Act, transit inspectors have authority to stop and, without warrant, to search and examine any person, vehicle, receptacle, or vessel moving between States that they believe or have cause to believe possesses or contains nursery stock, plants, plant products, or other articles whose movement is prohibited or restricted by the Plant Quarantine Act or any quarantine or order promulgated thereunder. The inspectors also can seize, destroy, or otherwise dispose of material found moving contrary to regulations.

Domestic quarantines in force in 1952 relating to insects were those on account of the gypsy and brown-tail moths, Japanese beetle, pink bollworm, Mexican fruit fly, and white-fringed beetle.

Although they prohibit the movement of several commodities, these quarantines are predominantly restrictive, permitting movement from the regulated areas of restricted articles after certification based on visual inspection, treatment, or the meeting of specified conditions.

Inspectors also enforce the regulations governing the movement of plants and plant products into and out of the District of Columbia and the Insect Pest Act of 1905 as it pertains to interstate shipments. This latter Act prohibits, except under special conditions, the importation and interstate movement of living stages of insects notoriously injurious to cultivated crops.

The Postal Laws and Regulations recognize the hazards involved in the movement of insects and dangerous host material by restricting the movement of both. Nursery stock and other plant material may not be admitted to the mails unless accompanied by a certificate of inspection. The use of the mails is prohibited for the shipment of living stages of all insects except meal-worms, hellgrammites, honey bees, and the true silkworm. Thus the Postal Laws and Regulations supplement the Plant Quarantine Act and the Insect Pest Act in an important way. Common carriers have likewise included plant quarantines, nursery stock inspection requirements, and related laws in their tariffs.

State quarantines and regulatory orders are important in preventing the spread of injurious pests through the country, and the Government cooperates in their enforcement. In line with this policy, transit inspectors report to the proper State officials shipments seen moving contrary to State regulations. State quarantines cover a wide range of plant pests that are not the subject of Federal regulations. Transit inspectors give special attention to the so-called standardized State quarantines concerning insects or diseases in the control of which the Department participates. The one relating to the sweetpotato weevil is an example.

Transit inspectors in the States that have adopted the Terminal Inspection Act usually cooperate in the enforcement of that Act. Terminal inspection under the Terminal Inspection Act and transit inspection are two distinctly different activities. The Terminal Inspection Act is a Federal statute that provides the States with a means of inspecting mail shipments of plants and plant products destined to their particular State, and the work conducted thereunder is supported entirely by State funds. Transit inspection is conducted under the Plant Quarantine Act and is supported chiefly by Federal appropriations.

Quarantines cannot accomplish their full purpose preventing the spread of dangerous pests into new localities unless infested articles are prevented from being transported into those localities. Transit inspection has a significant part in controlling the movement of restricted articles and in stopping the movement of prohibited and dangerous material. All shipments, irrespective of their nature, are moved throughout this country by railroads, motor vehicles, airplanes, or merchant vessels or by a combination of these methods. Regardless of the means employed, well-established routing schemes are used, and the shipments moved for distances of 150 miles or more pass through strategically located transfer terminals or distribution centers. Potential pest-carrying shipments from any quarantined area are thus concentrated at these key points.

At such transportation gateways transit inspection work is conducted.

By carefully timed and coordinated tours of inspection, a limited number of inspectors can examine a large volume of shipments from the quarantined areas. Control units, with suppression, control, or even eradication as their aim, are in operation within each quarantined area, with regulatory work as an important and necessary phase of their program. Stopping pests completely at their source is unattainable, for complete control from within can be had only with an army of inspectors and at a prohibitive cost. It is impossible to reach all shippers and carriers within a quarantined area or to overcome the indifference of some to regulations. The work of such control units must be supplemented by an activity that can keep the units informed of how well or how poorly the shippers are adhering to the safeguards required. Transit inspection serves that purpose.

SINCE ITS INCEPTION transit inspection has been carried on at some 40 major gateways through which parcel post, express, and freight are routed. Adjustments in operations have been made as a result of quarantine changes and the resulting effects upon the importance of a station. In 1952 work was conducted on a permanent basis at the quarantine-important stations of Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Memphis, New York, Omaha, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, St. Paul, Washington, D. C., and several points in California. Seasonal stations of importance included Albany, Columbus, Denver, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Kansas City, New Orleans, and Springfield, Mass.

The nature of the work varies with the season of the year. Attention is focused in spring and fall on the movement of nursery stock; in summer, on fruit and vegetable consignments; in December, on the transportation of Christmas trees, greens, and other decorative material; and during the rest of the winter, on the movement of citrus and other crops from the South.

Actual inspections are made according to prearranged schedules at parcel-post terminals; at local post offices; at express terminals; in mail and express sorting rooms at railroad stations; in baggage, express, and mail-storage cars while standing in the stations or at loading platforms; at freight break-bulk points and classification yards; at motor freight terminals; at piers; at produce terminals; at flower markets; and at air terminals. Efforts are concentrated on the examination of material from the various quarantined areas and on the movement that is not or cannot be seen at other inspection stations. Tours of duty are scheduled so as to obtain the most effective coverage regardless of the day or hour, since parcel post and express are worked and transported every hour of the day and every day of the week. Inspections are timed so that eligible shipments are dispatched without delay. Waybill examinations are made of both carlot and less-than-carlot freight to supplement the examinations of the shipments themselves. Road patrol stations are not normally a function of transit inspection. Such activity is usually conducted by the control units on important highways leading out of a quarantined area.

Inspection involves not only the examination of shipments that are set aside for transit inspectors by cooperating carriers, but also the actual searching for parcels that contain or are suspected of containing restricted or Prohibited material. Packages are not examined at random but are carefully selected. In screening shipments for an illegal one, the inspector is guided by a sort of sixth sense a knack of detecting material of a contraband nature. From the size, shape, weight, markings, odor, degree of dampness, and the handling and shaking of parcels, the inspector can determine his interest in the shipment. Not all parcels selected are actually opened, for after checking the origin and destination, considering the infractions likely to be involved, and judging the contents, the inspector may determine that there is no need for further examination. An experienced inspector's appraisal of the contents of unopened parcels is almost unbelievably accurate.

I could give many examples. A package consigned to a tool company had the appearance and weight of metal but lacked a metallic sound when shaken; it was opened and found to contain strawberry plants in soil. A crate labeled and waybilled as "wire frames" aroused suspicion, and examination disclosed the contents to be restricted plant material. Subsequent investigation disclosed this misrepresentation to be a deliberate attempt to evade the regulations. A carton marked "Hats Don't Crush" attracted the watchful eye of an inspector and was found to contain only uncertified holly branches. A securely wrapped and neatly disguised box of cuttings, shipped without the name or address of the sender, had a note inside that the parcel had once been refused by the carrier because of the "bug ban" an instance of attempted smuggling. Six wooden boxes well covered with labels reading "orchids," an item exempt from certification, were thoroughly examined because of their weight and found to include restricted plants in soil. Evergreen cuttings, detected by their odor, were discovered in a completely closed crate of furniture. Uncertified evergreen boughs from the gypsy moth area have been found on several occasions in cartons labeled "laundry" and "clothing." Live plants labeled and declared as "cut flowers" have been intercepted many times.