Pesticides in natural history collections

Jennifer E. Hain <jhain [at] mail__utexas__edu> writes

>I am currently finishing my masters in conservation studies and have
>been doing research on pesticides used in herbaria, their long term
>stability, identification, and health risks. One major gap I have
>found in my research, however, is in elemental analysis.
>...
>Has anybody conducted any elemental analysis on a survey of samples
>of herbarium (or any natural history collection for that matter)
>materials?  Has information on these studies been published?

Yes, quite a bit of work has been done in this area.  She should
contact Monona Rossol, an environmental health consultant, who has
spent a considerable amount of time looking into these questions.
She's at 212-777-0062.  She publishes a periodic newsletter entitled
"Acts Facts" which keeps members abreast of developments in the
arts, crafts and theater safety areas.  But she also works in a
variety of other areas affecting people in the workplace.

In addition, Lisa Goldberg, who was originally with the Smithsonian,
published an extensive review of the types of pesticides
historically used on ethnographic materials in their collections.
She's at 607-937-3394 in Corning, NY.

Thomas A. Parker, PhD
President, Entomologist
Pest Control Services, Inc.
Entomological Consulting
14 East Stratford Avenue
Lansdowne PA 19050
610-284-6249

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:33
                 Distributed: Friday, December 3, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-13-33-006
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