Subject: Arsenic in natural history collections
Jane Pudsey <jane.pudsey [at] coventry__gov__uk> writes >Can anyone advise us of a specification for an extract system that >would remove arsenic particles disturbed whilst handling Natural >History specimens? Due to space constraints, this will need to be an >over-head hood type. If you haven't already, do check out publications on handling arsenic contaminated cultural materials such as the Erica E. Henry "The Merckoquant 10026 Arsenic Test for Natural History Collections" WAAC Newsletter Vol 18, No. 1, January 1996 <URL:http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/ waac/wn/wn18/wn18-1/wn18-107.html> and Anthony Knapp "Arsenic Health and Safety Update" National Park Service Conservogram September 2000 <URL:http://www.nps.gov/ history/museum/publications/conserveogram/02-03.pdf> **** Moderator's comments: The above URLs have been wrapped for email. There should be no newlines. As arsenic is a fairly heavy material, an overhead extraction system is not going to be very effective. Proper personal protection equipment isn't very expensive and will provide much better protection. If you are still concerned about arsenic contamination, an air curtain type hood or alternately a bottom drawing fume cupboard could easily be fabricated. I describe a similar walk in downdraft "varnishing cabinet" in a paper published by IIC in "Modern Art- New Museums" 2004. The main issues would then be cleaning the equipment after use--which still requires personal protection equipment--and appropriate labeling, transport and disposal of the arsenic contaminated filters. Thomas Dixon Melbourne Australia *** Conservation DistList Instance 22:10 Distributed: Thursday, August 14, 2008 Message Id: cdl-22-10-002 ***Received on Sunday, 10 August, 2008