LightCheck

Julie Rees-Jones <julierayfield [at] mac__com> writes

>Fiona Cahill <fiona.cahill [at] armouries__org__uk> writes
>
>>I have been asked to review the dosimeters we use in our galleries,
>>and from the literature see that LightCheck
>><URL:http://www.lightcheck.co.uk/> has been a promoted as a
>>replacement for blue wool dosimeters. ...
>
>We carried out a MA conservation project at the Institute of
>Archaeology, UCL, looking at the LightCheck sticks and found them to
>be good in low light levels as they change colour more quickly than
>Blue Wool Standards.  They were very sensitive to UV light and will
>change colour very quickly if exposed to direct sunlight.  They
>could therefore be useful to monitor the integrity of UV filters.
>
>Some of the colour changes were hard to tell apart.

The LightCheck dosimeters have been calibrated for their response to
the visible portion of the light spectrum only (the dose-response
colour charts are included in the commercial package). Despite the
fact that LightCheck does have a fading response to UV light, there
is no dose-response chart available regarding the exposure of the
dosimeters to UV light. Thus, attempts to relate the colour fading
of LightCheck incurred by the exposure to UV light to a 'UV dose'
can be misleading.

Anne-Laurence Dupont
Centre de Recherche sur la Conservation des Collections
Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle - CP 21
36 rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, FR-75005 Paris
+33 1 40 79 53 07
Fax: +33 1 40 79 53 12


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 22:24
                 Distributed: Monday, October 20, 2008
                       Message Id: cdl-22-24-002
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