[Nhcoll-l] Arsenic SOPS for vertebrate collections

[Cannon, Alice]

Hi Beth - we’ve done a lot around managing collection hazards at Museums Victoria – for skins, we assume they are all hazardous unless proven otherwise (especially older ones).

From a labelling perspective, in general we use additional “hazard” labels to note whether hazards such as arsenic are either suspected or confirmed. (We have a stock of these in two different sizes, printed on Tyvek). One side of the label is filled out if a hazard is suspected, and a request for analytical testing is put through to our Materials Scientist. Once the hazard is confirmed (via XRF or ATR-FTIR, depending on the substance), the other side of the label is filled out as well. We use yellow stickers on these labels too (with an exclamation mark on them), to give a strong visual indication a hazard may be present or is confirmed to be present. Hazards information is added to the object’s database record (along with personal protective equipment/handling recommendations).

Skin specimens are an exception to this though – we don’t attach the extra label unless they’ve been tested, as overloading with labels can cause damage to delicate feet and legs (especially birds). So instead every drawer in the skin collection has a hazard label on it, warning that they potentially contain heavy metals. If a specimen is removed from the store it has to have a suspected hazard label applied to it before it goes anywhere else.

We’ve developed safe operating procedures for arsenic and a number of other collection hazards (e.g. mercury, lead, asbestos, formalin) – I’ll email you our arsenic one directly. (Also happy to share it with anyone else who might find it useful!). Anyone who will be working with affected collections or in storage areas containing affected objects is given induction training – this may include students, volunteers and researchers, if they will be working directly with collections. The Procedure includes information about what kinds of objects might contain the hazard, the health effects, required PPE, decontamination and waste disposal methods, control strategies for handling and transport etc.

We don’t generally have separate storage areas for specimens that have been found to contain hazardous materials but sometimes make item-specific enclosures where the hazard is loose/friable (e.g. items containing asbestos will be double-bagged). In Australia some hazards require specific and separate storage by law (e.g. some classes of poisons/pharmaceuticals, radioactive materials).

I hope this is useful!

Alice Cannon
Acting Manager, Conservation
Museums Victoria
PO Box 666, Melbourne VIC 3001
(03) 8341 7235 / 0402 041 064
acannon at museum.vic.gov.au



This e-mail is solely for the named addressee and may be confidential. You should only read, disclose, transmit, copy, distribute, act in reliance on or commercialise the contents if you are authorised to do so. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, please notify postmaster at museum.vic.gov.au <mailto:postmaster at museum.vic.gov.au>  by email immediately, or notify the sender and then destroy any copy of this message. Views expressed in this email are those of the individual sender, except where specifically stated to be those of an officer of Museum Victoria. Museum Victoria does not represent, warrant or guarantee that the integrity of this communication has been maintained nor that it is free from errors, virus or interference.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20171010/9ec02285/attachment.html