C2C Care: Identifying and Managing Hazardous Materials In Museum Collections
Channel: AIC & FAIC
Date: 2021-06-24

While hazardous materials can be a daunting topic to tackle, it is very possible to not only identify hazards in your own collection, but to also implement straightforward and inexpensive solutions to safely house, store, display and work with these materials. This webinar will take a close look at hazardous materials present in museum collections and how to properly manage their safe storage and handling. It will cover not only the identification of hazards, but also the straightforward steps that can be taken to improve safety and reduce the likelihood of exposure to dangerous substances. Points to be discussed include: 

-What makes a material hazardous? Going beyond labels that just say “poison” or “danger” to examine the different types and levels of toxicity, routes of exposure, exposure limits, as well as dangerous physical properties like flammability and radioactivity. Also taking a look at the wide range of common hazards (and some less common ones) that you are likely to encounter. 

-How to survey your collection for hazards – what should you be looking for and how? While some hazardous materials are easy to identify visually, many are not and require further analytical testing (often p-XRF or GC-MS). We will take a look at what is required to identify materials like organic and inorganic pesticides, heavy metals and ethnobotanical toxins as well as strategies for finding and arranging for analytical testing.

-What to do with hazardous materials once they’re identified. The vast majority of materials can be safely handled and interacted with as long as some thought has been put into safe and clear working procedures – this includes having proper PPE on hand and available to staff, having a system of tagging hazardous objects both physically and in digital records, as well as taking the time to make simple adjustments to housing and storage