Patent ID: 7060927

Claim:
A method for preventing possible contaminants associated with mailpieces that are to be delivered to a building from contaminating an enclosed space of the building, wherein the enclosed space is defined by at least one wall that separates this enclosed space from an area outside the building, said method comprising: providing an opening in the at least one wall for receiving the mailpieces; providing a packaging tube having a closed end and an open end, the open end securely attached to the opening so as to prevent air circulation outside the building from entering the enclosed space from the opening; receiving the mailpieces into the packaging tube through the open end of the packaging tube; and hermetically sealing the packaging tube for encapsulating the mailpieces in at least one sealed tube section; severing the sealed tube sections into separate encapsulated packages; and transporting the separate encapsulated packages along a conveyor extracting an air sample from each of the encapsulating packages through a filter for collecting on the filter particles that may be contaminants associated with the mailpiece so as to detect the possible contaminants based on the collected particles and wherein the mailpieces are delivered in separate groups and wherein said sealing is carried out for sealing the packing tube at intervals in order to separately encapsulate the groups of the mailpieces in a plurality of sealed tube sections.