USPS To Stop Shipping Electronics with Li-Ion Batteries Internationally

If you live in the US and are used to selling cameras to overseas customers — or if you live overseas and like to buy your cameras from US retailers — your shipping choices just got a bit slimmer. In a statement released earlier, the US Postal Service (USPS) said that they will no longer be shipping any items with li-ion batteries in them internationally starting May 16th, declaring the batteries a “fire hazard”. Lithium batteries power many personal electronic devices and have been found to be volatile in certain situations (e.g. improper storage) — they destroy an estimated one US cargo jet every other year. Of course, not everybody trusts USPS to ship their international packages as it is, and this latest development should lead to increased business for private companies like UPS and Fedex.


Image credit: Hmmm… by Zach Welty

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