[Nhcoll-l] Arsenic testing

[Kirsten Nicholson]

I have a related question to this arsenic thread. Our OSHA and Safety
people on campus told me when we were arsenic testing and had concerns that
there is very little information available on dermal toxicity of arsenic.
In their minds, therefore, since we weren't using it ourselves or at risk
of ingesting it or inhaling it, then there wasn't much concern from their
standpoint. I mentioned that (at that time) we had discovered some
contaminated specimens in our teaching collection (they were enclosed in
tubes, but still; we've replaced them with clean specimens) and that we
were concerned that folks might handle the birds and then either eat
afterwards or whatever, and they seemed relatively unconcerned, claiming
that an individual would have to consume a large amount of arsenic to be
affected.

Can anybody speak to this? Clearly we're all concerned in the museum world
for containing affected specimens, yet our health officials really aren't
concerned.

Thanks,

Kirsten


On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 9:21 AM, Lena Hernandez <LHernandez at themosh.org>wrote:

>
>
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> Recently I attempted testing for arsenic in the mounted specimens of our
> collection. My issues, that I hope some of you can help with, is that I am
> getting a negative result on specimens that I am sure have arsenic. Has
> anyone else run into this problem? If so how did you solve it? I am
> following the protocol developed by NPS in their Conserve-o-Gram 2/3 and
> using Hach's arsenic test kit, since the one recommended by NPS is no
> longer made. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Feel free to contact me
> off list if you would prefer.
>
>
>
>
>
> Lena Hernandez
>
> Collections Manager/Registrar
>
>
>
> Museum of Science and History
>
> 1025 Museum Circle
>
> Jacksonville, FL 32207
>
> (904)396-6674 x212
>
> lhernandez at themosh.org
>
>
>
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>
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>
>


-- 
Kirsten E. Nicholson, Ph.D






*Assoc. Prof. Biology          and       Curator of Natural HistoryDept. of
Biology                             Museum of Cultural and Natural
History217 Brooks Hall                            103 Rowe HallCentral
Michigan Univ.                 Central Michigan University Mt. Pleasant, MI
48859                 Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859989-774-3758
             989-774-3829*
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