[NHCOLL-L:4000] Deaccessioning arsenic specimens

[Gegick, Patricia, DCA]

Hello All,

Our director has recently requested that we deaccession and dispose of
all of our taxidermy birds that have tested positive for arsenic.  These
specimens are currently kept in a separate labeled cabinet, and when
possible, placed in large zip lock bags.  The highest ppm recorded for
any specimen was 0.5 -1.0 ppm.  I am curious to know what other museums
are doing about specimens containing arsenic.  Are they being
deaccessioned and destroyed?  Are they ever on display in closed cases?
If you keep them, are they stored separately?  How often do you test for
arsenic?  Thanks much.

Patricia Gegick

........................................................................
.......... 
Patricia Gegick 
Bioscience Collections Manager 
New Mexico Museum of Natural History 
1801 Mountain Road NW 
Albuquerque, NM  87104-1375 
Phone:  505.841.2867    Fax:  505.841.2866 
email:  pgegick at nmmnh.state.nm.us 
Museum website at www.NMnaturalhistory.org 
.................................................................... 

"Every calculation based on experience elsewhere fails in New Mexico."

Lew Wallace, New Mexico Territorial Governor from 1878-1881

            New Mexico, The Land of Enchantment

 

 



Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail, including all attachments is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited unless specifically provided under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of this message. -- This email has been scanned by the Sybari - Antigen Email System. 



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/nhcoll-l/attachments/20081014/2bae68ee/attachment.html