Sintra board

Chris Woods <director<-a t->ncs< . >org< . >uk> writes

>Does anyone have any conservation related information about Sintra
>board as a surface on which hygroscopic material items might be
>displayed?  It is a closed cell PVC sheet material. ...

One word of caution with Sintra, when machining, sanding and
drilling. While analyzing (with XRF) a textile mounted onto a Sintra
board, we detected peaks of lead and cadmium and didn't understand
why.  I did a search and found the MSDS which showed that Sintra,
percent by weight, contains less than 2% lead, 3% antimony and 1%
cadmium.

These heavy metals should not leach out in the case of hygroscopic
materials...but if you are creating dust by working with Sintra, I
recommend wearing a respirator.

Material Safety Data Sheet for Sintra:

    <URL:http://www.advanced-plastics.com/msds/P25_020702.pdf>

Marie Svoboda
Associate Conservator
Antiquities Conservation
J. Paul Getty Museum
310-440-7052


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:5
                  Distributed: Saturday, July 5, 2014
                        Message Id: cdl-28-5-003
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