Arsenic and Old Lace: Controlling Hazardous Collection Materials

Connecting to Collections Care Webinar Series

May 3, 2016

Kerith Koss Schrager Anne Kingery-Schwartz Kathryn Makos

Kerith.Koss@gmail.com aekingery@gmail.com kamakos@verizon.net

AIC HEALTH & SAFETY COMMITTEE

HealthandSafety@conservation-us.org
www.conservation-wiki.com/wiki/Health_&_Safety

HEALTH AND SAFETY ORGANIZATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS OF

RELEVANCE TO COLLECTION CARE

Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety

Director: Monona Rossol
www.artscraftstheatersafety.org

Health in the Arts Program (occupational medicine and industrial hygiene/safety services)
University of Illinois School of Public Health/Great Lakes C e n t e r
Director: David Hinkamp, M.D., MPH
www.uic.edu/sph/glakes/harts

Hatchfield, P. 2002. Pollutants in the Museum Environment: Practical Strategies for Problem
Solving in Design, Exhibition and Storage. Archetype Publications, London.

Hawks, C., M. McCann, K. Makos, L. Goldberg, D. Hinkamp, D. Ertel, Jr, and P. Silence (eds).
2011. Health and Safety for Museum Professionals. Society for the Preservation of Natural
History Collections. New York.

McCann, M. and A. Babin. 2008. Health Hazards Manual for Artists, 6th ed. Globe Pequot
Press.

McCann, M. 2005. Artist Beware, Updated and Revised: The Hazards in Working with All Art
and Craft Materials and the Precautions Every Artist and Craftsperson Should Take. Lyons
Press, Connecticut.

Rossol, M. 2001. The Artists Complete Health and Safety Guide, 3rd ed. Allworth Press, New
York.

Rossol, M. and S. Shaw. 1991. Overexposure Health Hazards in Photography 2nd ed, Allworth
Press.

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 COLLECTION-BASED HAZARDS – OVERVIEWS AND SPECIFIC TOPICS

Goldberg, L. 1996. A history of pest control measures in the anthropology collections, National
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Journal of the American Institute for
Conservation 35 (1996): 74-75.

Hawks, C. 2000. Historical survey of the sources of contamination of ethnographic materials in

museum collections. Collection Forum 16(1-2): 2-11.

Hawks, C. and K. Makos. 2000. Inherent or acquired hazards in museum collections:

implications for care and use of collections. Cultural Resource Management 23(5): 31-37.

Hawks, C. and D. Von Endt. 1990. Mercury and mercury compounds in natural history
collections: an annotated bibliography. Natural History Conservation (5): 4-19.

Hawks, C. and S. Williams. 1986. Arsenic in natural history collections. Leather Conservation
News. 2(2): 1-4.

Howie, F.M. 1992. Hazards for the mineral collector, conservator and curator. Ch. 9 in The care
and conservation of geological material: Minerals, rocks, meteorites and lunar f i n d s .
Butterworth-Heinemann, N Y .

Johnson, J. Masked Hazard. In Common Ground: Archeology and Ethnography in the Public
Interest. 1999.
www.cr.nps.gov/aad/cg/fa_1999/Hazard.htm

Koss Schrager, K. 2013. "Health & Safety Column: Tin-Mercury Amalgam Mirrors," AIC News,
38(1), 12-15.

Miller, P. 1991. Oklahoma Field Advisory Service: Technical Bulletin 9: Arsenic, Old Lace, and
Stuffed Owls May Be Dangerous to Your Health: Hazards in Museum Collections. MuseNews.
21:3, p. 4-6.
www.okmuseums.org/sites/oma2/uploads/documents/Technical_Bulletins/Technical_Bulletin_9
_-_Arsenic_Old_Lace_and_Stuffed_Owls.pdf

Nishimura, D.W. 1995. Film supports: Negatives, transparencies, microforms, and motion
picture film. Pp. 365-394 in Storage of Natural History Collections: A Preventive Conservation
Approach. Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections.

Norquest, S., A. Kile, and D. Peters. 2015. Working with a Collection of Radioactive Aircraft
Instruments. OSG Postprints, AIC Annual Meeting, Miami FL, May 13-16, 2015.

Pool, M.A. 2004. Health and Safety Technical Resources on Pesticides for the Conservator.
American Institute for Conservation. Washington DC.

Torres, M. et al. 2010. Mercury emissions from historical tin amalgam mirrors. Interim meeting
of ICOM-CC working group. Oct 3-6, 2010. Corning NY.

Waller, R., K. Andrew and J. Tetreault. 2000. Survey of gaseous pollutant concentration
distributions in mineral collections. Collection Forum 14(1-2): 1-32.

Williams, S. and C. Hawks. 1987. History of materials used in the preparation of recent
mammal collections, in Mammal Collection Management. H. Genoways, C. Jones and O.
Rossolimo (eds.) Texas Tech Press, Lubbock, TX. P.21-49.

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 ASSESSMENTS, CONTROLS, REMEDIATION

American Association for State and Local History. 2009. Tech. Leaflet 248: Handling/Exhibition
of Potentially Hazardous Artifacts.
aaslh.site-m.com/store/ViewProduct.aspx?id=6334512

ASHRAE Handbook-HVAC Applications. 2011. Chapter 23 “Museums, Galleries, Archives, and

Libraries”. 2011. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers,
Inc., Ann Arbor.

Burroughs, G.E, K. Makos, C. Hawks, T. Ryan. 2006. Exposure of museum staff to

formaldehyde during some wet specimen activities. Collection Forum 20(1-2): 49-54

Charola, A. Elena; Koestler, R. J. 2010. Pesticide Mitigation in Museum Collections: Science in

Conservation. Proceedings from the MCI Workshop Series. Washington, DC: Smithsonian
Institution Scholarly Press, pp.1-6.

Contaminated Collections: Preservation, Access, and Use. Proceedings of a symposium held at

the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC), Shepherdstown, West Virginia. April 6-9,
2001. Collection Forum 17 (1-2).

Cross, P. S. and N. Odegaard. 2009. The inherent levels of arsenic and mercury in artifact
materials. Collection Forum 23 (1-2): 23-35.

Deucher, V., T. Moore, and S. Hemlin. 2000. Access denied: Asbestos contamination as catalyst
and hindrance to collection retrieval and preservation. Journal of the American Institute for
Conservation 39:75-84.

Gibson, L.T., C. Higgitt, N. Odegaard, and I. Rushworth. 2014. Novel non-invasive sensors for
the detection of pesticides on heritage objects. In ICOMM-CC 17th Triennial Conference
Preprints, Melbourne, 15-19 September 2014, ed. J. Bridgland, art. 1602, 7 pp. Paris:
International Council of Museums.

Gribovich, A., S. Lacey, J. Franke, D. Hinkamp. 2013. Assessment of arsenic surface

contamination in a museum anthropology department. Journal of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine 55(2) 164-7.

Hall-Patton, M and J. Kent. 2014. Collections That Can Kill: Safe Handling, Display and Storage of
Hazardous Materials and Weapons. Western Museums Association Annual Meeting, Las Vegas,
NV.
www.westmuse.org/collections-can-kill-safe-handling-display-and-storage-hazardous-materials-
and-weapons

Hawks, C, K. Makos, D. Bell, P. Wambach, and G. Burroughs. 2004. An inexpensive method to

test for mercury vapor in herbarium collections. Taxon 53(3): 783-790.

Hawks, C. and R. Waller. 2012. A tale of two systems: synergy in managing risks to people and
collections. Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals 8(1): 115-124.

Kubiatotowicz, R. and L. Benson. 2003. Oh No! Ethnobotany. The safe handling and storage of
hazardous ethnobotanical artifacts. Collection Forum 18(1-2): 59-73.

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 Makos, K. and C. Hawks. 2014. Collateral Damage: Unintended consequences of vapor-phase
organic pesticides. MuseumPests 2014: IPM for Museums, Libraries, Archives and Historic
Sites, Williamsburg, VA.
museumpests.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/4-1-Hawks-and-Makos-paper-formatted.pdf.

Marte, F. et al. 2006. Arsenic in taxidermy collections: history, detection and management.
Collection Forum 21(1-2): 143-150.
Mazet, J.A.K., T.D. Hunt and M. H. Ziccardi. 2004. Assessment of the risk of zoonotic disease
transmission to marine mammal workers and the public: survey of occupational risks. Wildlife
Research Center, University of California, Davis CA. 55 pp.
swfsc.noaa.gov/uploadedFiles/Divisions/PRD/Programs/Photogrammetry/Marine_Mammal_Zoo
noses_Final_Report-2.pdf

NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health). 1998. Health hazard evaluation
report: Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, National Park Service, U.S. Department of
the Interior, Hagerman, Idaho. By T. Jiggens, J.J. Cardarelli, and S.H. Ahrenholz. Cincinnati,
OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. NIOSH HETA Report No.
9600264-2713.

Odegaard, N., et al. 2000. Materials characterization tests for objects of art and archaeology.
London: Archetype Publications, Ltd: London.
Odegaard, N. and A. Sadongei (editors). 2005. “Old Poisons, New Problems.” AltaMira Press,
Walnut Creek, California.

Odegaard, N., D.R. Smith, L. V. Boyer, and J. Anderson. 2006. Use of handheld XRF for the
study of pesticide residues on museum objects. Collection Forum 20(1-2): 42-48.

Ormsby, M., S. Johnson, S. Heald, L. Chang, and J. Bosworth. 2006. Investigation of solid
phase microextraction sampling for organic pesticide residues on museum collections.
Collection Forum 20(1-2): 1-12.

Robinson, S. 2014. Dangerous liaisons: Mapping and communicating collection hazards. ICOM-
th
CC, 17 Triennial Conference 2014 Melbourne

Sirois, P. J. 2010. Detecting pesticide residues on museum objects in Canadian collections--a

summary of surveys spanning a twenty year period. Collection Forum 24 (1-2): 28-45.

Smith, B and B. Coulehan. 2002. Potential Exposure to Arsenic and Other Highly Toxic
Chemicals When Handling Museum Artifacts. Applied Occupational and Environmental
Hygiene 17(11): 741-743.

Strahan, Donna and M. Tsukada. 2014. Measuring mercury emissions from cinnabar lacquer
objects. An Unbroken History: Conserving East Asian Works of Art and Heritage. 2014 IIC
Congress, Hong Kong.

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 POLICIES AND PROGRAMS

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 2015. National Center for Emerging and
Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. www.cdc.gov/ncezid (18 March 2015).

Meltzer, J., J.R. Smith, and A. Marigza. 2014. Crafting A Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) In A
Conservator’s Environment. MuseumPests 2014: IPM for Museums, Libraries, Archives and
Historic Sites, Williamsburg, VA.
museumpests.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/4-4-Marigza-et-al-Poster.pdf

National Museum of Natural History, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution. 2010.

Statement on Potential Hazards (Inherent and Acquired) Associated with Collection Objects.
anthropology.si.edu/cm/NMNH_Potential_Hazards_Disclosure_Statement_2010.pdf

National Park Service (U.S. Department of the Interior), Museum Management Program. 2015.
www.nps.gov/museum

National Park Service (U.S. Department of the Interior), Conserve-o-Gram series

www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/intro.pdf

National Park Service. 1998. Hazardous Materials In Your Collection. Conserve-o-Gram,

Number 2/10.
www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/02-10.pdf

PAS 198. 2012. Specifications for managing environmental conditions for cultural collections.
The British Standards Institution, BSI Standards Limited.

Rossol, M., and W.C. Jessup. 1996. No Magic Bullets Ethical Considerations for Pest
Management Strategies, International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship 15 (2)
145-68.

Sikes, R.S., W.L. Gannon, and the Animal Care and Use Committee of the American Society of
Mammalogists. 2011. Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the use of wild
animals in research. Journal of Mammalogy 92(1): 235-253.

Smithsonian Institution (SI) Safety Manual. 2016.

www.ofeo.si.edu/safety_health/Safety_manual/safety_manual_toc.asp

US Department of Interior. 2006. Frequently Asked Questions about Contaminated Museum

Collections.
www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/migrated/museum/upload/Contaminated_Collections_FAQs.pdf

US Department of Labor. Occupational Health and Safety Administration. 2002. Job Hazard
Analysis: OSHA 3071 2002 (Revised).
www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3071.pdf

US Radiation Control Programs in the US http://www.crcpd.org/Map/HTMLPage2.htm

Health Physics Society Ask a Question http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/ask.cfm

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