Hazardous materials

Alison Wain's excellent response to a query about radioactive
hazards in natural history collections reminded me of a parallel
question regarding other hazardous materials I've run across from
time to time.  I'd be interested to know what advice is out there
regarding the disposition of live small arms ammunition and
potentially dangerous 18th or 19th century pharmaceuticals like
strychnine.  These items are sometimes collected in smaller
historical museums as personal effects or as parts of larger
accessions when the local pharmacy closes.  In a medium or larger
institution there is the possibility of safe storage for this sort
of thing, but smaller museums invariably want to know how to dispose
of this material.  Any thoughts?

Kory Berrett
Objects Conservator

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:24
                 Distributed: Friday, September 6, 1996
                       Message Id: cdl-10-24-006
                                  ***