Tight production controls, combined with the fact that direct mail campaigns are not put into the mail stream anonymously, make direct mail the safest of all mail in the Postal Service system, the Direct Marketing Association asserted on Friday.
The assurances became necessary after several well-publicized instances in which letters contaminated by anthrax resulted in both recipients and mail handlers being exposed to the disease.
According to the DMA, commercial mail is carefully accounted for and often goes from production sources to delivery units, bypassing postal sorting locations. As for collateral contamination, the DMA noted that the US Postal Service is changing its procedures for maintaining its sorting and transporting equipment.
“In addition, the high-speed and high-tech equipment used to produce direct mail pieces make it difficult to tamper with the mail,” added H. Robert Wientzen, the DMA
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