Toxic materials

This is in answer to Ms. von Lerber's post (Conservation DistList
Instance: 14:11 Sunday, August 6, 2000) concerning pesticides on
objects in collections and anyone else who has similar questions.

We at San Francisco State University have organized a conference for
this fall on this subject taking place on September 29, 30 and
October 1, 2000.  We will have museum scientists and other
professionals speak on the history of pesticide use in museums, the
health hazards of exposure and risk assessment, isolation and
containment of contaminated materials, testing and sampling.  We
will also have Native American tribal representatives speak on their
experiences with NAGPRA and present their perspective on initiatives
on producing a solution to the problem.  Anyone who is interested in
this issue can join our listserve and share information by
subscribing at arttest [at] sfsu__edu.  Or you can ask for more
information on the fall conference, which is free during
pre-registration until September 15th and $20 thereafter.  You can
visit <URL:http://bss.sfsu.edu/calstudies/arttest/> where there is a
bibliography posted there on pesticide use in museums and on
objects.

Ms. von Lerber might also contact Jens Glastrup at the Danish
National Museums.  Jens has published some of their testing data
(Studies in Conservation, v. 32, 1987:59-64).  Jens also has
continued research on this topic on testing, removal of pesticides
and neutralization and can be reached at jens.glastrup [at] natmus__dk
Jens will not be presenting materials at our conference, but will
have a report ready later this year.

Niccolo Caldararo, Ph.D.
Departments of Anthropology and California Studies
Art Test Laboratory
San Francisco State University
415-453-9064


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:14
                  Distributed: Friday, August 18, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-14-14-003
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