[Nhcoll-l] Dealing with arsenic and formalin in the collections

[Majken Them Tøttrup]

Dear all

Thank you all for your input - it is very useful.

Typo's on our webpage is forwarded to the responsible persons, thank you.

 

Greetings,

Majken (who is a SPNHC member J)

 

And who knows - maybe we will be hosting a SPNHC meeting when the new museum is up and running...

 

 

 

From: Bentley, Andrew Charles [mailto:abentley at ku.edu] 
Sent: 28. juni 2013 22:07
To: Majken Them Tøttrup; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Dealing with arsenic and formalin in the collections

 

Majken

 

Good luck with your new museum!!  As a start you may want to consider becoming a member of SPNHC (www.spnhc.org) (if you are not already) which will not only provide you with a forum to discuss these issues within a group of like-minded professionals and provide you with various resources that will help but also provide you with advocacy resources going forward.

 

There are a number of issues regarding converting formalin specimens across to ethanol:

 

1.       There are certain specimens that may have deteriorated substantially over time (tadpoles, larval specimens) that may have lost bone and require special treatment before any conversion is attempted.  There may be some specimens that would be best left in formalin.  Testing of formalin pH should be done and corrected if they do remain in formalin.  Whatever the case, I think the primary motivation for transferring specimens should be the long term preservation of the specimens and not any other factor - although these can be important too.  

2.       All conversions should be done gradually in steps through water and various increasing concentrations of ethanol to prevent osmotic stress on the specimens which may cause changes in size, loss of external skin and scales etc.

3.       There are numerous resources online that will help outline this process:

http://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/11-01.pdf

http://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/11-03.pdf

http://invertebrates.si.edu/USAP2/usapspec.html

http://www.bookemon.com/book-profile/manual-for-transferring-wet-specimens-from-long-term-storage-in-formalin-into-75%25-ethanol-solution/158908

and many more...

 

Hope that helps

 

Andy

 

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 }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°>
    V                V                V
 Andy Bentley
 Ichthyology Collection Manager
 University of Kansas
Biodiversity Institute

 Dyche Hall
 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
 Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561
 USA

Tel: (785) 864-3863
Fax: (785) 864-5335 
 Email: abentley at ku.edu  

http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu <http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu/> 

 

SPNHC President-Elect

http://www.spnhc.org

 

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 }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°>
    V                V                V

 

From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Majken Them Tøttrup
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 5:30 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Dealing with arsenic and formalin in the collections

 

Dear all

First question J

The Copenhagen collections are old and therefore a great deal of the bird- and mammal skins is treated with arsenic. Furthermore we still have smaller parts of the wet collections still stored in a formalin solution (the latter is to be transferred to alcohol, when finding the resources).

On one hand, we wish to keep the collections active, e.g. having scientist and students studying the collections, sending out (and receiving) loans etc. - on the other hand we wish to protect the people handling the specimens.

How do you deal with that dilemma in your institution?

 

Sincerely 

Majken

 

Majken Them Tøttrup

Collections Manager

Natural History Museum of Denmark

University of Denmark

Universitetsparken 15

DK-2100 Copenhagen

Denmark

 

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