 Good morning everyone or good afternoon for those of you that aren't in the morning as I am. I want to welcome you here and I'm going to run through this quickly. If you need answers for collections care problems, please go to the online forum. We are beginning to get more action there but we are happy to answer questions if we can. So check that out. You need to be registered but that's easy and it doesn't cost anything. You can see all of the past webinars in the archives on the website so check those out. And I post the recordings usually a day or two after each webinar so if you miss one or you want to see one again you can do that. This is how you can contact me and I'm happy to answer any questions. We have the community website, we have Facebook, we have Twitter and there's the new email list has started. It's only for announcements and no discussion so if you need to contact me or you want to reply to something about something on the list, send it to me directly. Don't reply to the list. And next month in June we're having something on firearms in museums and in July we're going to do something on crowdsourcing. Both of those should be really interesting so check out the website and you can register. And today's webinar is about hazardous collections and I'm going to turn it over to our speakers. So here we go. If you have questions please post them in the chat box. I will catch them. There are going to be three sections in the webinar for questions and the speakers are going to be curating them so I think they're going to be grouping them together so that it will save time and at the end if there are any extra questions I will catch them. They will answer them in writing and I'll post them with the webinar. So thanks. Here we go. Thanks Susan. Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us. I'm Karith and I'm going to be starting out our talk today. And Kathy and I are here representing the AIC health and safety committee. AIC formed this committee to provide educational and technical information on safety hazards and general health issues related to the conservation profession. One of the committee's main objectives is outreach like this webinar to make sure the collection care community and not just conservators are aware of health and safety issues in your work lives. Ann and I are both object conservators and Kathy is an industrial hygienist which is a specialist in occupational health. Kathy is recently retired from the Smithsonian so she has expert knowledge of both health and safety issues as well as the museum environment. One of our goals of this talk is for you to understand the difference between what Ann and I do and what Kathy does as it relates to health and safety and why it's important for collecting institutions to have relationships with both professions. So we'd like to ask you some survey questions just to get a little bit more information about what our audience is like today. So Susan do you want to put up the first one? And then I think we can put up the second one when you're ready which is going to ask where you're from. So I'm seeing that we see that we have several people from outside the US and I just want to tell you that many of the procedures that we're talking about today will be specific to your location so we can post websites and resources related to other regions outside the US after the webinar but if you have any specific questions about your PM locations and things like that you can email us and we can give you specific questions. I think we're ready if people are done answering we can put up the next question which is whether or not you think that you have hazardous objects in your collection. And then Susan I think you can put up the next one too which is do you already have procedures in place to protect workers and visitors from health and safety? And then our last one for right now is whether you work with health and safety professionals sorry no if you work with conservators already. And the last one is about health and safety. Okay so the goal of our presentation is to help you identify possible hazards within your collection and make a plan for mitigating the risk. Basic health and safety should be a part of your overall risk management program for your collection. What this means is that when we think about all the things that could happen in our collection we tend to focus on what negative things could happen to the object. What happens if this object falls off the shelf? Here we're going to shift the focus to the human element. What happens if this object falls off the shelf and on to me? You should consider your own health and safety to be equally as important as the health and safety of the collections in your care. So after we talk about some identification of hazards we're going to discuss how to design a management plan so that you know what you can do on an administrative and collection care level, what you can do on an object handling and conservation level, and what may actually require professional health and safety assistance or very specialized training and licensing. Since we're practicing conservators we completely understand the limited resources museums and historical sites have but there is a point that you really will need to want to collaborate with specialists so we'll go over some case studies to demonstrate how you can do that. If you need a specialist how do you find one and how can you determine if you're selecting the right kind of health? And finally we'll discuss some resources if you don't have staff in your organization. As Susan said we'll take a break after each section so we can have a question and answer period and we'll be monitoring the chat for questions but we'd appreciate it if you can kind of keep the chat box to questions so that Anne can come up for you. For the most part throughout the talk we'll be providing general recommendations since it's difficult to make claims about health and safety issues without knowing your specific situation. The Q&A periods will be your opportunity to ask us about more detailed scenarios. So what exactly are hazardous collection materials? A material is considered hazardous if it has the potential to cause injury, illness, or death. Cause damage or to or loss of equipment property or collection or inhibit operations such as restricting your access to storage cases. I want to mention the examples we're providing here are just a small sampling of the kinds of hazards you can find in the collection and each one of them could really have their own 90-bit webinar. The idea here is to raise awareness and provide resources for you to go get the specific health you need. Hazards can be either inherent or required so let's look at some of the examples of what they're doing. Many objects are hazardous by nature or design. The hazard is often not apparent and may require specific knowledge about the collection. These include toxic plant specimens, mineral specimens that are heavy metals or radioactive, and chemical or medicinal steps. Some objects can also cause physical harm. These are objects that are heavy, sharp, or breakable, things like spiny shells and flammable materials such as alcohol-based deserves. These hazards are often very apparent but the hazard is so often assumed they may be overlooked. Heavy objects stored high on shelves may seem stable but that could become dislodged during an earthquake. Certain materials were deliberately incorporated into an object during production, in some cases capitalize on the properties related to their hazardous nature, such as with weaponry, rifles, hand grenades, or gunpowder. Hazardous materials may have a particular property that is intrinsic to the function of the or value of the object, and these include luminous instrument dials painted with radium-based paint, built with arsenic added to increase their weight for sale, felt hats different with mercury, liquid mercury used for quick and accurate measurements in kilometers and gauges, and cadmium lead and chrome-based pigments used for their durability and color. These hazards will become apparent once you've conducted collection care research into production techniques. Sometimes at the time of manufacture, the hazardous nature of the material was not known and has only become apparent through recent study in health assessments. For instance, asbestos was added to art plasters and stuccoes used for decorative work because it was cheap and plentiful, this kind of plaster was commonly used in exhibition dioramas or taxidermy mounts. Another example is uranium, which was added to specialty glasses, poison aid jewelry, and certain blazes on C.S. to wear. These are often hidden hazards. For example, materials containing asbestos were widely used, rarely documented, and difficult to identify by sight. Deterioration or damage can result in materials becoming more toxic or unstable. These processes are often unpredictable, can occur without any warning signs, and require a more in-depth knowledge of collection and production techniques in order to identify. They also offer the best examples of when you should consult local hazardous materials specialists. For example, the reflective surface on historic mirrors was created using tin and mercury. In good tradition, the mirroring is not hazardous, but once the deterioration process begins, liquid mercury and vapor is released. County environmental protection agencies can assess this and contain and remove the mercury. Nitrocellulose film becomes extremely slimeable upon decay. If you're unsure of how long this film has been stored, leave it and call the fire department. They are always happy to deal with this kind of situation before rather than after you have the fire. Other materials, which we discussed already that were hazardous by nature, can become even more dangerous as they deteriorate. Any movement or dismantling of an asbestos art plaster can release airborne fibers. An abatement specialist needs to help you with this. Medicinal and chemical collections can change with age, creating highly reactive or explosive mixtures or off-gas toxic materials. If you're unsure of the age of your collection or its condition, you should again try and call your fire department to help you. Some pigmented paints can powder over time and pose inhalation and ingestion hazards. An ammunition can become unstable. For example, grenades form highly explosive peroxide as they degrade. Local police departments will safely remove old gunpowder horns and inspect old weaponry. They usually will safely remove the hazardous materials and return the object to you. Objects can acquire toxicity through treatment. These kinds of hazards may require specialized knowledge to identify since even if you know your collection, you may not be aware of historical and modern treatment techniques that have been applied, especially if proper documentation or institutional knowledge is not available. However, you may have some clues that pesticide treatments, for example, have been applied. Some pesticides believe residues or have a characteristic odor. Some highly toxic organics like naphthalene, which is what you find in moth balls, will recrystallize on surfaces of objects and cases, providing inhalation hazards. Your correct salt used on botany mountain papers appears a gray black silver sheen indicating that you should be aware that mercury vapor might linger in storage cases. But many other pesticides, such as our cynical compounds, are not obvious. Yet leave harmful particulate residues which can be inhaled or injected. Sometimes in an organic object in perfect condition, when other objects have pest damage is an indication of a pesticide treatment. When acquiring an item for a collection or working on a project, you should try to obtain archival records of treatment. If the item is more modern, ask for safety data sheets on the materials that were used to create the object. You may acquire an orphaned collection with little data or start working with a collection that has incomplete records. In any of these situations, identification of treatment hazards will probably require specialized analytical testing and possibly the help of a health and safety specialist. Objects can also acquire toxicity through environmental contamination. These hazards can sometimes be predicted, such as mold following a flood or a leak. This category also includes fiber and dust contamination from storage or building materials like asbestos containing insulation or lead-based paint used on walls and exhibitions. Specialized training is required for even minor cleanup of lead and asbestos. Also debris from pest infestations such as carcasses, casings, brass, and bird droppings can cause severe allergic reactions, as well as certain lung disorders and bacterial infections. A pest mitigation specialist may be needed for these. Don't forget that any given object may have one or more of these properties. A mirror may contain mercury, but it may also be heavily offered to caries, have broken glass, or an insect infestation. To this point, we've discussed that the identification of hazards requires various levels of knowledge of the collection, environmental condition, and production techniques. Having a hazard is not the same as knowing the health and safety risk, and this is a really important distinction that we're going to talk about. Just because you've identified a hazardous object in your collection, it doesn't mean you have to get rid of it. As we've just discussed, a sharp shell is a hazard and a deterioring mercury mirror is a hazard. I would guess that more people feel comfortable handling the shell than they do handling the mirror. This is because you've already internally done your own risk assessment. The goal of our presentation is to help you set up a management plan that will assist you in navigating the hazards of your collection, that you can feel as comfortable dealing with the mercury mirror as you do with handling the shell, even if that means getting someone else to help you. A hazard is a material's basic property. Your shell is sharp or your mercury is toxic. A risk is the degree to which that hazard affects your body's system through illness or trauma. Understanding risk involves understanding how you'll be working with a hazardous condition. Highly hazardous material may not pose a high risk if proper safety controls are in place. You also have to be trained on how to use them and then actually use them. So you have to actually wear your gloves when you're handling things. The risk can change for a specific material depending on several things. The kind of safety protocols that are used, how the material is used in the object, and the quantity of the material that is present, and the root of exposure. You can reduce your risk by either reducing the contaminant or by reducing the possibility of exposure. So let's take a look at some examples of collection-based hazard versus risk. I just lost my screen. I just lost my screen, so we want to answer a question or two. Let's start with controlling the hazard using handling techniques. Formaldehyde is a known human carcinogen, and can be extremely hazardous if it's inhaled or absorbed through eyes and or music membrane. However, with proper health and safety protocols, as you can see here, any potential exposures to formaldehyde can be minimized. In the majority of cases, food and health and safety measures can significantly reduce if not eliminate risk. So here you can see all the personal protective equipment they're wearing. Personal protective equipment refers to things such as gloves, goggles, aprons, and head protection, and might refer to it as PPE. Now this is an extreme example. Most collections won't have large baths of formaldehyde. You may have one or two jars of preserved specimens, but the handling protocols don't change. Even if you're only topping off one specimen jar, you should still be following the same procedures of local ventilation, wearing a respirator if you don't have proper ventilation, gloves, careful handling, and still control materials just in case. Next, how the hazard of materials is used also changes the risk. Here's the case of vermilion or cinnabar. It's a sulfide of mercury, so high hazard. It can be found as a mineral specimen carved into decorative artifacts or ground up as a pigment colorant. Here you can see in the upper left that mercury droplets actually form on the surface of the mineral specimen. In most paintings are the colorant and Asian lacquers. It will be mixed with a binder. This reduces the risk, although it is still not entirely eliminated. However, unless the surface is severely degraded or damaged and with careful handling, the likelihood of your painting that contains vermilion is unlikely to affect anyone's health and safety. It's higher risk when it's underbound, deteriorated, or as a carved around mineral specimen. Proper safety controls become more critical to controlling risk in these cases, so even if you wear goggles to protect yourself, you need to be aware that loose pigment or mercury droplets can easily be transferred from your gloves to other surfaces. And then there's the rosary pee. Some items remain high risk no matter what precautions are taken when handling because of the high possibility of the precaution failing. The rosary pee is made into jewelry in a variety of cultures, but contains a toxin, which is similar to ricin, and has the potential to cause total bodily system shutdown, so in this case it would be considered extremely high hazard. Even with proper warning labels and safety protocols, rosary pee's remain high risk. Even the smallest exposure can cause severe illness or even death. In some cases, limiting access may be the only appropriate step in risk management. The rosary pee also demonstrates how understanding routes of exposure affects risk. The effects of the toxin and the rosary pee depends on whether it is breathed in, swallowed, or injected. The major signs and symptoms of poisoning depend on how someone was exposed, referred to as the root of exposure, and how much they were exposed to or the dose. Understanding how a hazard can have a health effect is essential for taking the appropriate preventative measures. For example, the elemental mercury that comes out of the mirrors is primarily a concern when it is inhaled as a vapor. Less than one percent of the total amount of the mercury is absorbed if you held it in your hand or if you swallowed it. But if you create vapor by agitating it or using a vacuum to clean it up, nearly 80 percent of the inhaled vapor will be absorbed into your body. Similarly, asbestos poses an inhalation risk, while lead is primarily a hazard by ingestion. So let's take a minute or two to stop for questions. And is there anything about identifying hazards that we want to answer questions about? Okay. This is Kathy Makis. And I'm going to answer a question regarding digitizing large numbers of fur coats, accessories that might be associated with mercury, taxidermy, arsenical salts, et cetera, and what to do. I'm not a conservator. So I'm an industrial hygienist, so I will leave the digitizing aspect of this to Anna Carruth. But I would say that you probably are worried here more about residual particulates, so as opposed to, you know, vapors. So in a sense that makes it easier, I put that in quotes, because if you have a HEPA vacuum, you're talking about making sure that, one, you're not handling them, moving them, transporting them to your digitizing table or equipment in any way that is going to aerosolize those particles, right? So good covering, et cetera, careful handling, wearing gloves if you have, you know, a respirator or even a P100 filtering base piece, you know, a dust mask that is acceptable or recommended. And think constant cleaning of your work surfaces for, you know, removal of any of those particulates. The HEPA vacuum is your friend. I say that to any collection unit facility of any size that is your friend for all sorts of reasons, right, from, you know, from eggs and insect frass to constant cleaning of work surfaces for any kind of particulate residues. Eric and you want to talk about the digitizing part of it. I will say that there's been a lot of studies done on collections that have been treated with heavy metal pesticides. And what they found is if you really have good personal protective equipment, lab coats, gloves, and you can really protect yourself. Also covering your surfaces with tyvek or polyethylene plastic or something that you can dispose of periodically also can help you kind of control those substances. Okay, Kathy, do you want to answer the next question about herbaria? On herbaria. Yes, this is, so what has, if you have a herbarium and botanical collections, you know that one of the go-to treatment pesticide preservative was mercuricloride, people dipping them in the field, you know, spraying them on, etc. And you probably have lots of herbaria collection that have some residual mercuric salts associated with them. And from my understanding, you can tell me if I'm wrong here on the IH, but the mercuric salts do not actually penetrate into any of the specimen material, botanical specimen, which makes it perfect because they sort of coat and cover without ruining the specimen. The problem is that over time, even though mercuricloride is known to be a very stable compound over time, I mean, you're talking decades and decades, especially in storage, it will disassociate in a complicated mechanism so that you will have some of the chlorine vaporizing, vaporizing is the wrong word, I'm sorry to say, but the mercury will, the elemental mercury will vaporize within the case. If you have older mounting papers, then they might have some sulfur in them. And so you will see this mercuric sulfide gray black sheen start to happen on your mounting papers. So that's your first clue that you have an issue. Handling those with gloves is fine, but what happens that you still may have mercuric vapor building up within your collection and within your storage cases that then becomes a problem when you open the case. And if your cases happen to be leaky or if they're older wooden core ones that are not as airtight as they, as you'd like them to be, you may have this problem within your storage space. The recommendation. Kathy, we're going to have to stop there. So we stay on track time wise. We'll answer more of your questions at another question break. So keep them coming and we'll try and get back to some of these older ones. And if we don't get to them all, we're going to try and answer them on the online forum in the future. So let's discuss the importance of creating a safety plan for handling these objects. The Rosary P was an extreme example of why collections should be safe, but often the question is raised, why is this important? Or is it really worth the expense or time or resources when I have all these other things I need to be doing? Managers are responsible to both their staff and public for providing a safe, healthy and enjoyable experience. Ultimately, it's a health and safety of your staff that benefits from a safe collection. Collections with uncontrolled safety risks are inaccessible. Nobody can come and read your books if they're covered with mold. Once the commitment is made to create a safety program, it's not as difficult or overwhelming as it first appears. The technologies of hazard control are well developed, often inexpensive and easily accessible. How then can we reduce the health and safety risks associated with these materials? You probably recognize that your collection requires a disaster plan. The same principles apply to these safety plans. You want to identify the hazards, protect against negative events, keep evaluating and improving the process. A safe work environment should have a number of safety programs to ensure health and safety, but also to comply with OSHA standards. Such federal OSHA regulations apply to all federal government agencies and private employers, including museums, cultural institutions and private businesses. OSHA regulations apply regardless of the size of your organization. States may administer their own programs, at least as stringent as the federal requirements, but may have additional unique requirements. If you work in a state that administers its own program, you have to follow the state laws. Every workplace should have an occupational health and safety plan, which outlines your general safety policies throughout the institution. Within this plan, there are numerous programs for dealing with specific hazards and tasks, such as using chemicals or using machinery or handling hazardous materials. Your collection-based risk management plan will identify the specific hazards in your collection. It will outline health and safety risks of working with these hazards, and then establish procedures for controlling the risk. Development of the risk management plan can also rely on other safety procedures. A job hazard analysis, for example, is a technique that uses a step-by-step work task chart to list the elements of a hazardous task. We've included the blank OSHA job hazard analysis form in our handout packet, an example of how you'd fill one out. This example is from an AIC news article that was intended for a more general conservation task, which was using scaffolding to clean up paintings. But you can see, through that example, the type of questions and process that you need to go through when addressing these issues. A written and clearly communicated plan has the following benefits. First, hazards can be systematically identified. By formalizing safety practices that you might already have in place, it ensures that everyone in the institution follows them. Worker efficiency is increased by not having to start from scratch every time the hazard arises or there is a change in staff. It allows for the systematic or planned budgeting of resources. A plan may not be implemented overnight, but a well-justified list of priorities can be presented during budget discussions for future projects. And finally, injuries and illnesses are reduced, boosting productivity and saving on legal costs, worker compensation and implying. The goal of these policies is to protect workers from injuries and illnesses, to prevent assets from being destroyed by fire or structural failures, and to prevent cleaning the environment. So those were some of the benefits, and it's to insist you in actually creating a collection-based plan we've outlined the following. Your plan must include these five elements, a clear definition of responsibilities, an outline of practices to identify hazards, an exposure assessment for determining what your actual risk is and how to consult professionals, identification of ways to minimize risk and how to perform and reevaluate them, and a system of training and hazard communication. Staff should be trained on how to follow all the procedures outlined in the previous steps. Keep in mind this plan does not have to be extensive or elaborate to meet these criteria. It simply needs to serve as a plan of action for the safe handling and care of both the object and the individuals. So let's look at some of these elements in more detail. A good plan starts with outlining roles and responsibilities. Managers and supervisors should demonstrate commitment to safety and health. Supervisors can make sure that safety precautions are included in budgets and project design. Safety is another cost of doing business equally as important as all the other aspects of managing your collection. Staff needs to feel comfortable reporting and discussing their concerns, as well as making suggestions on how to do the task more safely. If there isn't a professional safety consultant on staff or contract, then someone on staff should be assigned as your safety officer. Even contractors and temporary workers need to be included in all training and discussions. They must alert others to any risk their own work brings to the workplace. The presence of hazardous conditions can be identified through a variety of ways. Begin by knowing your materials and when to expect hazards. Research the materials before beginning a project or handling an object. Second, review archival records or original flexors notes. Knowledge of past or current preservation methods within the institution can reveal hazards that might otherwise be unknown. Also understand your building's construction, how your collections are housed and handled, and your environmental conditions. If your building was built prior to the 1970s, there's a good chance lead paint is on your walls even if it's covered with latex-based paint. Your pipe fittings maybe have asbestos mud or your attic ceiling is covered with asbestos grated on insulation. Be aware of the areas that are likely to leak, flood, or attract pests. And then confirm your suspicions with analytical testing such as radiation surveys and environmental analysis. There are various testing methods that can be applied to objects to identify hazards. These methods test for the presence of a substance and not for risk. The surface concentration of a hazardous substance does not translate to a quantifiable health hazard. For example, you may be sampling pesticides that have been unevenly applied, that have migrated unevenly to the surface, or that were selectively applied in the first place. If you have objects for repatriation, the risk is different since these objects will potentially be used. There's an excellent discussion of repatriation on the U.S. Department of Interior fact sheet that we've put into the bibliography. We're going to outline some tests that may not necessarily be appropriate for you to do yourself, but we're including them in the discussion so that you're aware of what is available and can know what to expect from someone offering these services. While some of these can be used by conservators and collection staff, we recommend that you consult safety professionals or a laboratory certified to perform these tests. It's important to understand the methods to be sure they do not require invasive techniques and that the objects can withstand them. Particular hazards such as heavy metals or organic pesticides can be collected from the surface of an object using a surface wipe or microvacuum. This involves using filter paper, gauze, or cotton swab, typically moistened of water, alcohol, or other solvent selected for the type of particulate being used on the object surface. These samples are analyzed depending on the suspected contaminant. Thought tests and indicator papers can be purchased commercially, or simple chemical reactions can be conducted on site for things like lead and arsenic. And then the last three examples here are highly specialized analytical equipment, but will give you the most specific results. The most common being X-ray fluorescence or XRS. XRS can be used directly on the object without taking samples to identify elements. Since it's now more readily available in a portable unit, it's more widely used by collections to identify materials and you can see them using the portable XRS in our lower picture on the right there. For vapor, you may see the use of a mercury vapor analyzer, which has a wand attachment to use in encabinets or bagged objects. Collection of gases from a whole air sample can be conducted using a sample bag or canister, and these samples then are then sent out to a commercial lab. There are also indicator papers and powders that will change colors in the presence of certain papers. Radiation can be detected with a geiger counter, which you could purchase yourself, but radioactive materials will also expose indicator papers and film. Certain materials such as uranium glass will have a characteristic fluorescence under UV light. As we said, research and examination can get you a long way down the path to identification. These methods serve to confirm your suspicion. Now let's move on to exposure assessment that you'll do once you've identified your hazard and Kathy is going to take it. Hello everybody. Now we're often tempted to skip over this step on exposure assessments and go right to implementing controls. This can lead to situations where there are overly restrictive or cautious you know responses or or they're under control because of false assumptions of low risk. Because none of us can really eyeball exactly how much formaldehyde or mercury vapor we're breathing, you really do need to invest some time and money up front on good exposure assessments because as we'll see later it may save you a lot of money by putting the risk of your actual work methods into perspective. I'll give you an example of arsenic. I have seen over the years many studies from other other areas in which people are so afraid of the possible arsenic contamination on their collections that they are in full Tyvex and you know air supplied respirators etc, which is an understandable concern. However, if you're looking at the fact that the problem may very well be a particulate residue that can be controlled as I mentioned at break with HEPA vacuums, safe work situations, gloves etc, you probably will be able to ratchet back all time and money in expensive controls when actually you can manage this hazard in a more reasonable way. An exposure assessment from an industrial hygienist is the one way to be able to put those numbers in perspective. Safety specialists will determine your risks by monitoring your exposure in relation to the way you do your work focusing on that potential for injury or trauma or illness. You also need to get to know your healthcare professional and your doctor and tell them what you do, what kind of chemicals and materials you're going to come in contact with. Explain the frequency in a week that you work with such chemicals as many biological tests, we'll talk about urine samples later, have a very limited window for testing post exposure. I'll use arsenic again as my favorite contaminant. If you are handling conserving etc, arsenic treated collections during a week you will want to be tested, biological tested urine sampling at the end of the week not waiting over a weekend because arsenic has a very inorganic arsenic has a very short half-life. This is the kind of advice that you would get if you're working with an IH to monitor all of your routes of exposure from that particular chemical. The other thing is to realize that most of us in our business and also in the medicine business do not really understand your work environment and collections. You know, how many times do you have to tell somebody what you do and they get the response, you know, know what, what exactly is that. So your doctor and other safety specialists are no different. Larger institutions will have safety specialists on staff, but smaller organizations can seek our professional help through numerous public health and safety resources and we're going to discuss a lot of those later on to help you. So what should you expect from your exposure assessment? You've identified your pesticides, so how can you tell how you've been exposed and what the possible health effects could be? But as they say in our trade, the dose makes the poison. Exposure is defined as the opportunity for the body to receive a dose that's substantial enough to result in a negative health effect. Exposure can be measured in a variety of ways depending on the possible routes of entry into the body and an understanding of how a specific contaminant will be encountered. So possible routes of entry will include inhalation, ingestion, and absorption through mucus membrane skins or eyes particularly. An inhalation dose and I see from the polling that many of you have been working with health and safety folks and if you're with a larger organization, university, etc., you probably have had some of this sampling done. But for those of you who don't, an inhalation dose can be measured via an air sample that is attached to a calibrated pump, usually worn on your belt. The air sample is attached to your breathing zone as we call it, which is usually on your collar around your radius of a foot or two around your head. The idea is that this will follow you through the day as kind of a surrogate nose if you want to put it that way. The results from the sampling media will give us an idea of what your true exposure can be estimated at, given your downtime, you're working close to an object away from an object, that kind of thing. Dermal wipes and patch tests can also estimate exposure dose from absorption through either the skin or as kind of an assumption of what your ingestion risk could be if you are not thinking about that on your skin. An experienced IH will then evaluate those results against regulatory standards. Significant exposure through routes of entry other than inhalation may require biological monitoring, typically blood, urine, or exhaled breath. These are markers of exposure, not health effect, but they should be done, have to be done with a medical clinic. Biological monitoring can help the physician assess your total body burden from all routes of entry. I'll use arsenic again as an example of what I'm talking about. If you're handling objects, doing any kind of collection care inspections or conservation on an object that may have been treated with arsenic and you're using proper precautions, your inhalation dose may be very little if you're doing work the way you and your standard practices call for that. So there may be very little on the sample that the IH takes. However, if you aren't being careful about spreading that around, it's in your break area, et cetera, you may very well be ingesting arsenic particulate in ways you wouldn't have thought of it. So arsenic will show up in the urine, even though it might not be on the air sample, and so a total exposure assessment would include urine samples as well to give the doctor an idea of whether or not there's other routes of entry and it might cause you some problems. Keep in mind that not every project will require medical tests, but a health and safety professional in their assessments will be able to tell you whether or not say the amount of naphthalene in the air from those old clothes donations you have that contain molecules might require your staff to process the collection, see the decisions for further medical process. So back to Karen. Okay, so here we have the three steps preferred hierarchy of controls to minimize your possibility of exposure. The best fund of defense is removal. If the hazard can be removed from the collection, then there's no longer a risk. Obviously, as a collecting organization, this isn't really going to be an option most of the time. So the next is to isolate the hazard and then the final defense is proper work practices, teaching people to work safely and provide the equipment and environment to do so. Is the item vital to your collection? Could you deliver the same message with a replica? Can certain elements of the collection be removed and others retained? Try to efficiently remove anything that might have come in contact with the collection, like contaminated packing materials and beware of cross-contamination, cross-contamining work areas or other objects. This also includes replacing contaminated cabinets. After decades of containing off-gassing materials, cabinets may have residual solids or volatile contaminants on the surfaces or even within the wood that would be very difficult or almost impossible to remove. But removal doesn't just mean having to get rid of your object. Environmental hazards, such as mold or insect debris, can often be removed. Always use a vacuum that contains a HEPA filter, as Kathy mentioned earlier. Most people know that the Nilfuss brand is kind of the gold standard for this, but you'll find that there are many other HEPA filtered vacuums for a fraction of the cost that will also do the same thing. Remember that cleaning removes the contaminant but can create additional hazardous waste. Here you can see that they're vacuuming these taxidermied animals and they're using extensive measures to prevent contamination of the worker and the surrounding space. Also consider using replicants or replicas, such as digital copies of photographs, paper and books, or modern replica mirrors in place of your mercury-containing mirrors. Consider the risks associated with your replicants. For example, fluid-preserved collections, the majority of which would be an ethanol or isopropanol, many people think that ethanol is a rather benign and safer alternative to formaldehyde, but inhaling ethanol vapor hits your bloodstream quickly, especially if you're topping off bottles or examining preserved specimens for hours without ventilation. The greatest risk then might be that you become light-headed or useful. Hazardous objects and any material used for their storage, treatment or transport may require disposal of hazardous waste. We get lots of questions on the committee on how to get rid of hazardous waste and it's really difficult to make a blanket statement about this. You really need to find out on a local level. For example, many cities or counties will have drop-off locations or you may have to hire a professional disposal contractor. Your local, state or environmental regulation department will know the specific tests and regulations for proper disposal and any licensing you may need. You really don't have to be afraid to call them. Many people feel that if you call these places for advice, they're going to inspect you or find you. They would really prefer that people come and ask for their assistance beforehand before you actually create a situation where you're creating environmental contamination. More information on hazardous waste disposal is available from the EPA. In many cases, objects cannot be completely decontaminated and should be isolated to prevent contamination of surrounding areas and objects. Often well-fielded containers are sheeting acrylic door tops or vitrines or placing radioactive objects behind appropriate shielding is all that you really need for storage and display. If you're working on a contaminated collection, fume hoods, ventilation trunks or respirators should be used to protect yourself from breathing in contaminants. Safe work practices can prevent contamination through diligent housekeeping and proper handling of materials, the use of personal protective equipment, and thoughtful decisions regarding choosing and or altering treatments and collection policies. Fruit and housekeeping reduces pest, dust, debris, and hazardous residues as well as the possibility of contaminating the storage bins cases or flooring. Storage containers and work surfaces should be seen before we use or covered with removable or disposable materials. Try to segregate hazardous collections from non-hazardous collections if you can and use closed containers or coverings for short distance transport of objects. Personal protective equipment must be selected to match the work task identified. If you're using a respirator, make sure you're using the right kind of mask, cartridge, or filter for your hazard as indicated by the manufacturer. If you're using a respirator and this includes disposable dust mask, it's required and that it's required for your work, it should be fit tested by a safety professional. Our handout packet includes a brochure all about using disposable face masks. The materials for protective clothing and gloves are also specific to hazard, particularly chemicals. This is a good time to talk about our glove selection chart that we have in our handout packet. When you look through safety catalogs or if you look at our chart, you'll see that the glove material that you want to choose for what you're doing is one that will prevent breakthrough or degradation for at least eight hours or whatever your, you know, what your typical work day is. So if you took a look at our chart, you'd be surprised to see the limited numbers of options you have for something like acetone, which you might be using maybe to do your accession numbering or something. So you'll see that most people have, say, a nitrile glove around to do their accession numbering, but if you actually spilled the acetone on your hand wearing a nitrile glove, you wouldn't be protected or detected. Remember your task may have more than one hazard, and that requires different types of protective equipment for your different hazards. Personal hygiene practices are habits that we all are familiar with. Things like removing your gloves inside out to prevent skin contamination. Don't reuse your contaminated materials. Wash your hands after completing tasks. Don't eat, drink, smoke or apply cosmetics while working with hazardous collections. Don't store food in contaminated areas. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth while you're working. And use your HEPA vacuum or disposable wipe to clean your brake area, telephone or other surfaces in case you've carried over hazardous particulates. Personal protective equipment is your last line of defense. That means you should have put all of your other safety protocols into effect first. Also PPE is exactly that, personal protection. It does not protect your visitors or your co-workers while you're working. Once hazardous has been identified, it may affect how the object can or should be treated or exhibited. A pesticide contaminated object requested for loan may have to be reconsidered if it cannot be treated, shipped or displayed safely. Or special shipping and exhibition mounts and protective wraps may have to be constructed. Try to select treatments that reduce hazardous risk. For example, use non-toss kit test treatment methods as part of an integrated test management program to avoid chemicals. Protocols for exhibition loan and storage should also be adapted to address risk. For exhibitions, consider the case and building construction. Diarrhams and old mounts should be tested for asbestos and lead paint prior to demolition. You will need a hazardous material testing consultant to do that. Clearly document any hazardous objects included in current exhibitions to protect workers during future de-installation. Hands-on displays or living collections, especially those that contain hand-be-downs, can be a real danger. There should be clearly outlined policies for how these objects are handled by the public. If your education staff wants to use a fascinating coral or a great costume that someone donated in a hands-on learning center, you must realize that some of this should only be handled by trained docent and not by visitors, especially children. Storage protocols also can range from simple to complex. Guns and explosives should never be assumed to be unloaded or inactivated. Facing guns towards an exterior wall of a storage area so that no one ever walks in front of them is a simple and effective method of risk management. On the other hand, collections containing specimens preserved in flammable liquids require specially designed storage areas with fire detection and prevention controls. Once all of the previous steps have been completed, there should be a clear and concise protocol for communicating all these conditions. All collections users should be given written fact sheets about the known or suspected hazards. We've given examples of how some institutions like the National Museum of Natural History have created these kinds of fact sheets in our resource list. Warning signs and labels should be posted on storage room doors or shelves, include hazards in the collection records for new acquisitions, as well as newly identified or suspected hazards on already accessioned objects. Access restrictions should be posted on each case or storage area that requires special ventilation or other pre-retrieval measures. The Oh No, F No Botany article, which is also in our resource list, is a great example of creating a collection-specific hazard communication system. Any collection item leading the collection must be accompanied by documentation disclosing hazardous materials. This is a requirement of the Federal OSHA Havard Communication Standard. Staff responsible for shipping and receiving are also required to take U.S. Department of Transportation Hazardous Material Transport Forces and or International Air Transport Association Dangerous Goods Training. These are provided through private training vendors. You should get hazard disclosures from your lender as part of your standard loan paperwork. Don't assume that because you don't see a disclosure that their collections are safe, you should be asking your lenders if they, for example, have tested their collections for pesticides. All collections users from employees to visiting researchers to docents to interns to contractors must be trained on your occupational health and safety and risk management plan. If you don't receive safety training at your new job internship or contract, ask your supervisor about safety procedures. This includes periodic safety training updates. So that section may have seemed pretty complicated and overwhelming, but here's the result. This is a sample checklist for a risk management plan for residual pesticides. We've also included this in the handouts and on the health and safety website. This particular one, as I said, is for residual pesticides, but it can be easily adapted for any general or specific hazard. Now the next time someone suspects there's a pesticide-contaminated object, they find the written plan and can immediately follow the steps outlined in the plan. So now we think we have time for another Q&A break. Okay, we're going to, one of the first questions that came up from a number of participants was they wanted to know more about how to deal with medicinals in their collection. Kathy, can you briefly touch on that? Yes, when it comes to medicinal, old chemical sets, as you really, unless you know the provenance of that, the dates, etc., or how long it's been since someone's actually literally handled and documented that, you really could be dealing with a potential, you know, potentially serious issue. I would simply pick up the phone and call the fire department and ask for their hazmat, you know, experts to come out and look at this with you. Trust me, as we'll talk about later in the case studies, there are lots of local, you know, already taxpayer paid resources for you to go to. They would much rather do that. It will eventually perhaps need a hazardous materials specialist to come test. There was a question on unknowns. If you have unknowns in your collections, don't try to test them yourself. They really will need the expert. I would start with the fire department hazmat teams to come in and assess the issues for you. Okay, and then the other question that I think we don't really cover in this presentation, but I think we should address is the question of unresponsive supervisors. When you come to them with potential hazardous collection material and they are flippant or don't want to help you with the answer, how can you, as a kind of underlying deal with that kind of situation? Well, labor relations issues aside, your supervisors are very much legally, certainly ethically, but legally responsible for your safety and health and anything that you're doing on your work. You have the right under OSHA. You have the right to refuse to do work, obviously. You're in a small organization. I know that's very difficult to do, but you have to protect yourself and your supervisors and managers are responsible, as we've been talking about here under OSHA, to provide a safe working environment. There was a question also, I think, on how to find these. There's, if you look up OSHA.gov or in Canada, everyone has the regulatory agencies, you'll find the local office. This may sound a bit drastic, but you have the right to call a local OSHA office and anonymously ask about how to get someone to comply. That is, you have to take care of yourself and unresponsive supervisors are in real legal trouble, so that is the hard answer. You really should find an OSHA office and ask them what recourse you can take. I am done, Ann. Okay, do you want to just start your next, the next portion of the webinar? Yeah, and I think that's, I think that's Karen. Yep, I'm here. Okay, so maybe now you realize or suspect something might be hazardous in your collection. The first step is not to panic. As we discussed, there are very simple precautions and procedures that can be taken by anyone to reduce your risk. This slide just serves as kind of a summary of what you can do on various occupational specialty levels. So on an administrative, registrar or basic collection management level, there are a lot of available resources for researching materials online and in the handouts provided. If you're doing online research, you have to be really careful to check your resources, to check your sources. It's important that your information is coming from someplace reliable, so like a museum or a government agency. You can also provide gloves, aprons, goggles, other personal protective equipment, and those things are all available through lab safety suppliers or even Amazon or the local drug store. Simple rehousing or basic or bagging of materials, moving them to more well-ventilated areas or out of exhibition spaces, even as a temporary measure, can help reduce the risk. If someone drops off an object to donate to your collection and you have a suspicion about it, just put it in a bag, clearly label it until you get more information. Hazard communication, particularly in the early stages of dealing with a hazardous material is important. Announce the hazard and limit access to the selection. Clearly label anything that poses a health risk is what the risk is and perhaps most importantly, who to contact for access. Perform basic sampling or housekeeping only if you have the training and the correct equipment to do so. Removing mold does not require that you be a conservator, but proper technique and equipment is important. Another issue might be leaking of hazardous materials such as preservatives, refrigerants, mortgages, mirrors, and scientific equipment. Those such as these emphasize the importance of having a risk management plan in place and having a trained staff. Even though these materials are regulated as hazardous waste, your staff can identify the problem and take measures to evacuate and ventilate the area. In some cases, the severity of spills dictates whether specialized health is required. You can purchase mercury spill kits to clean up small amounts of liquid mercury. For medium spills, which is like more than the amount of a thermometer, you should ventilate the area and call your local health or fire department. Anything over two tablespoons requires you contact the National Response Center. There are simple tests for letter arsenic that are commercially available, which could alert you to an issue. However, you should always have a professional confirm your results before continuing with your project. You could arrange to have the symmetry badges or you could guide your counter to monitor radiation exposure, but then again, you might need someone to help you interpret those results. And finally, make sure that your collection policies are up to date to address issues. When might you need a conservator or preservation specialist? Anytime you have more complex treatment issues, or if you haven't had training on housekeeping techniques, or if more complex sampling or testing is required, you should consult a conservator. Many conservators will have the knowledge and analytical tools to identify materials or the resources to proceed with identification. A conservator can also help with proper rehousing and isolation techniques as well as collection surveys to identify additional hazardous situations. Once you've received the proper training, you may be able to complete the rest of the project on your own. Conservators can also assist with replicas or visual replacements or altering objects to remove hazardous materials. And finally, when do you need to call in a health and safety specialist? And this is where I'm going to call in our health and safety specialist, and Kathy's going to take you through finding the specialist. Well, the simple answer is really when you get to the point in your collection slash safety risk management planning that you realize you have more questions than answers and that the control solutions and labeling and training and testing we've been talking about are beyond your time or equipment or budget to do without some outside help. After this webinar, we're hoping that you will sit down with your coworkers and your managers, hopefully including the supervisor that doesn't want to listen, and try to merge these hazardous materials risk management steps into your existing collections assessment plan, IPM program or your facility inspection and maintenance plans. You'll see that they're all, our principles are all the same. And when I think about it, that's one way to positively engage a supervisor who thinks this is too much work or that it's extra. You have to get your coworkers and your supervisors on board with knowing that these plans we've been talking about follow the same plan that you are for the good of your collection, and that the steps are the same. They need to be embedded that those questions is the safe. What should we do? Should be embedded in every step of the way. That's the positive answer. I guess I would give to that. So the other thing is calling in people from the outside, just as your building manager maybe spends time learning who all the utility experts are in the area, calling them in for free consults. You should think about that too. Have the fire department or your hazardous waste regulators come in and spend a morning with you with filling out the right paperwork, assessing your waste disposal levels, trying to see if there's fire code problems, etc. They will be happy to do that before a problem happens. Remember, you have wonderful places and the whole behind the scenes tour offer is a real big hook. Trust me. You also can assign your summer interns to research the types of gloves you will all need for various work. But if you need something a little more, you know, a little trickier, like a fume hood or a respirator, you will need an IHR safety specialist. I want to mention that there are certain materials like lead asbestos that will require an extra level. You'll need to have specialized training and state licensing. Handling or simple cleaning of asbestos containing or lead-based painted objects might only require an OSHA asbestos awareness training class. But again, a safety specialist is going to have to provide that, followed by safe work protocols and periodic monitoring according to OSHA regs. However, abatement or removal of say, delaminated asbestos installation from your storage area does require licensed asbestos workers and firms. So your first call on either of those issues is your state or county environmental protection agency who will have lists of those vetted and licensed vendors. Now, there's, we want to move on to a couple of case studies, but we want to mention to you, there's a lot of chat I think on, gee, I wish they would talk about specific, you know, hazards. There's, we could do three more webinars just on those alone, but resources. Our resource list will have a number of books, Manona Russell's books, for instance, the SI Safety Manual has got answers on specific types of hazards, a form, you know, fire, et cetera, as well. But there's a resource we strongly suggest you might invest in, and that's the Health and Safety for Museum Professionals, it's published through AIC and also Spinach. The co-editors are from all of our worlds, three conservators, three IHs, and occupational physician, and it's a gateway book that covers the basics of every program and specifics on most of the hazards that we're talking about from all sides. They also have, as you can see this list, an amazing amount of case studies written by you, written by museum staff and collection care people on problems and ways that they have found to work with safety professionals, then take and implement those things and own their own, you know, control programs. So we have a couple of case studies to go through. Two short case studies regarding radioactive materials, uranium and radium. Now we're going to move beyond the fiesta wear kind of issue because the radiation that's emitted from uranium pieces is not as much of an issue as the health hazard that Donna Strayen talks about in her case study about the ingestion or inhalation of radioactive particles. She cautions in her case, in her study about commercial conservators or restoration workers that might be drilling or smoothing or polishing pieces to definitely wear a respirator and work under a hood because uranium, just under uranium, uranium particles will seek the kidneys and cause serious renal damage failure to you. So it's again the powdering and the ingestion rather than just the radiation that's emitted, which leads me to control of radium paint dust in the National Air and Space Museum. Now you usually don't need to be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission when all you have are naturally occurring radioactive materials like minerals, but you do for man-made sources such as permethium dials and spacecraft. The NRC also licenses anyone holding radium 226 sources, which is a constituent of radium paint on aircraft dials. At the 2015 AIC meeting Sharon Norquist and Amelia Kyle of Nassum prevented working with a collection of radioactive aircraft instruments. A survey project that was conducted with Dave Peters, who is a Smithsonian industrial hygienist. Nassum is over 100 radium-painted instruments. Even after they stopped glowing in the dark, the radium's half-life is still 1600 years. Radium primarily emits alpha particles, which can be blocked by paper or clothing, but the paint is composed of radium salts, luminescent materials, and also paint binder. When that flakes and dust is formed by working on or with the instrument, the inhalation or ingestion of radium usually will lead to bone cancer. It seeks the bone. They conducted routine white samples on surfaces analyzed by Dave on site with a liquid scenolation counter, but then the IH formulated a control program for them to work with to reduce the risk of paint flakes. Work surfaces were decontaminated. Work was confined to dedicated fume hoods. Tools were labeled with radioactive stickers. Instruments were individually bagged and polyethylene bags to prevent aerosolization and cross-contamination. It's all very inexpensive way, an easy way, to contain that particular hazard. So this resulted for them as a safe, well-monitored working environment and a safe plexiglass case for public display, which kept the dose well below regulations for the public. Well, this required the assistance of someone knowledgeable with radiation safety with the appropriate instruments. The actual control plans were easily done by staff and maintained by staff. Now, this should be published soon in objects, especially group post-prince if you have access to that in some way. Next one. Given the news coverage, we couldn't have a discussion of hazardous collections without talking about Damien Hearst. He may be familiar with this artist, his amazing sculptures, and his work involving mammal specimens preserved in formaldehyde. It was published report recently by a firm that reported high levels of formaldehyde in the galleries around the Hearst displays of the Tate and also in Beijing, I think at the Summer Palace. Now, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on those test results, etc., but they did seem to cause quite a stir in England, at least. Once a week, for instance, is detected after a fact, it's very difficult to back calculate possible exposures. And by now, the real issue is how you handle public perception and understandable concern. So while you may never have one of these in your own collection or exhibit, it's a good example of talking about anticipating hazards in your gallery display design and pre-planning, because the public, frankly, does not expect any risks from visiting a museum or gallery. So here's Pam Hatchfield describing how Boston's Museum of Fine Arts successfully displayed, without any problems, one of Hearst's away from the flock in 2004. First, the formaldehyde was handled by an embalming company accustomed to dealing with large amounts of formaldehyde. The case of the object was an integral part of the piece and was specially constructed to withstand any leaks made of laminated, toughened glass, steel with silicone caulking, two sheets of toughened glass, two composite laminated tween. Area vapor monitors were installed in the exhibit area, connected to a specially installed ventilation system with a dedicated duct and fan from the actual formaldehyde tank to the outside, set to activate when the sensors detected a certain ambient concentration of formaldehyde. EVAC plans were developed, disseminated, people were trained. They had two portable formaldehyde monitors, two wall-mounted monitors, all of them with recorder outputs and dual alarms. At the conclusion of the exhibit, a professional hazmat handling firm removed and disposed of the formaldehyde. Environmental consultants conducted formaldehyde monitoring in the galley and adjacent spaces throughout and all of those monitors, sensors, were tested periodically and calibrated, but they never alarmed and never went off. Staff wasn't permitted to be present and the EVAC, during the installation or removal, and the EVAC procedures would have been identical to that initiated in the case of a fire alarm, so it fit into their fire alarm, you know, scenario. Now, the last case study, again, has to do with circus tents. Again, you may never have a circus tent in your building, but the point of this one is formaldehyde, as you know, is going to give you a problem, but a large traveling exhibit that may block exits or sprinklers. You may not be thinking about that unless you make safety review a part of every exhibit design. This last case study is for Mike Fragon, the safety manager at the Science Museum of Minnesota, who makes this point. The moral of the story is that it's better to work with the authorities than to try to run and hide from them. This particular exhibit, several circus tent with activities inside that would allow visitors to become somewhat disoriented. They brought in a senior fire inspector to review this as they're trying to do, and he said, well, you got a million-dollar sprinkler system here that you're intentionally obstructing with a bunch of tents, and on top of that, you're encouraging people to go into these tents and do activities that you know will disorient them. So Mike said, yeah, that's about it. That's what we're going to do. So the inspector said, well, at least you're asking us instead of trying to end around us, so let's see what we can do. They added some portable smoke detectors, extra staff to leave the public in an event of an emergency, a good EVAC plan, and some training, and the fire department was satisfied, and, quote, we enjoyed a successful run of the show. So this is how he ends, though, and this is the point we want to make in this presentation. Quote, as a result of being able to work with our local regulatory representatives, calling them often when we had questions, inviting them in often to provide direction, and most importantly, following through with their recommendations, we've established excellent working relationships with our local fire, environment, OSHA, transportation. Reach the point where our exhibits division invites the fire department in to give advice on occupant loading, egress, crowd flow, and construction material during the design phases of any new exhibit development. He ends with this. What is the value of a public museum to have that level of expertise and liability protection that tax dollars already pay for a lot? My advice to other museums, take advantage of it. Carrot, up to you. So now we're going to let you know how you can try and get some of these specialists to come help you with your collection, and I'm just going to give you some resources for how you can find a conservator. The best way to find a conservator is obviously through referrals from other individuals in your area or through conservation or museum related organizations. Remember that conservators have different specialties and may not have experience with all the hazardous materials that you might have, so make sure you clearly explain what your situation is. The American Institute for Conservation has a find a conservator feature on their website. This resource will only list conservators who are professional associates or fellows, which is an application process to demonstrate that you're actually a practicing conservator. It's not an endorsement or a statement of quality. There are very many well-qualified conservators who are associate members or not members of the AIC, so you don't need to panic if you have a conservator and that conservator is not on that list. As with every service, references and examples of previous work are important for selecting a conservator. There are also various other resources that provide lists of conservators, including local conservation guilds and other private websites. In general, a conservator will have better knowledge of a museum selection hazard than the specialist that Kathy was talking about. Every specialist will have some kind of professional benchmark that is required of their field, so you want to look for evidence that they are active with their profession, such as continuing education, ongoing presentations, and publishing. Where can you find us now? Here are some of the major allied professionals in terms of what assistance they can provide to you. OX safety managers known as CSPs, you hire one if you needed to manage your overall safety program. They focus on preventing injuries with emphasis on physical hazards, electrical, mechanical, combustible materials, ball protection, working at heights, power tools, that type of thing. But they're also experienced in emergency management, fire protection, training, and will have some crossover experience in industrial hygiene monitoring. But a more comprehensive building design and asset protection plan needs to be conducted by a fire protection engineer, usually a professional engineer PE, who's skilled at designing and inspecting fire detection and prevention systems based on complex life safety and building codes that regulate flammable combustible liquid storage, egress, etc. Another specialist then is extra hygienists, certified as CIHs, usually with a background in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, with experience in ventilation and acoustical engineering and focus on prevention of disease or other health hazards arising from the workplace. You'd seek an assistant from an IH to evaluate your inhalation, dermal exposures from chemical noise, biohazards, particulates, and fibers. If you have, many IHs are also skilled in radiation safety, but if you have lasers and use ionizing radiation sources, analytical instruments to a great degree, you'll want to seek the experience of a health physicist who's skilled by education in radiological hazard detection and protection. Occupational medicine. These are board-certified and occupational medicine. Every facility needs to have some relationship with a medical clinic that has some knowledge of industrial illness and injury prevention. So that is the title you're looking for. And environmental protection is kind of a catch-all. It's a broad area. These are folks that have at least a bachelor's in environmental science or public health. States are going to require some licensure for certain activities. You will find these folks generally in your university or agency or your county offices. So if you need help with hazardous waste disposal or advice on spill and leak control or permitting for underground storage tanks, for instance, that's who you're going to. Some of these services can be found of little of no cost. You can see what we've mentioned, fire departments, etc. Free OSHA on-site consultation is something that you definitely need to look into. OSHA, these services are separate from enforcement. They started this program to be a absolutely free service to small, medium businesses. Call them because you definitely qualify. Then of course, as some people I think have mentioned, if you belong to a government unit or part of a museum of that, there are environmental health and safety staff on there that are there to help. They may not even know that you have an issue that needs to be inspected or needs to be helped. Academic institutions, same thing if you are a museum that's embedded in or even archives of collecting units in their teaching collections, they may not have a clue that they contain some of these collection hazards you need to find those folks. And then everywhere around the world, certainly here in the US, public health and safety regulatory agencies have great websites for, you know, with podcast videos, etc. for program development. That is a great free source of information to help. And then of course, our own professional organizations worldwide. We have some listed here for industrial occupational hygiene and the link talks about consultants that you can find in occupational safety per se. Again, ASSC has a directory, international organizations, health physics society in the US for radiation safety, and these two links for occupational medicine clinics practitioners. Now, we definitely want to talk for a moment here about once you've decided on health and safety professional. It's important to remember that we don't really understand the workplace. Most industrial hygienists, this is sort of the screen for most physicians and healthcare professionals. So because they're focusing on how you're going to do work, when you, this is what you need to explain, have this information ready, details on your work activities, just a detailed description of your duration. This is going to, this is going to help them figure out how to do your exposure assessment. Any of the data sheets or the records of treatment that we've been talking about already, any expected exposures or concerns you have preventive measures that you already are using in place. And for physician, you definitely want to share your previous, your hobbies and home. If you're doing any of this on the side, you definitely want to get into that. Any other available data such as XRF or radiation surveys. And then if you are testing the object or specimen, as we talked about many of the, you have to ask the IH to detail their methods and materials very carefully so that you can explain to them what restrictions your collection has on those, and there won't be any, any, you know, mistakes and problems. Karen? Okay, Susan, if you just want to put up our last three questions, we kind of want to take an assessment of whether or not we had an effect on you guys handling your collections hazard. And to finish up, we want to talk about that we have all the resources that we gave you in your, in your handouts, as well as we'll be working with the connecting to collections care to sort of develop a health and safety, more health and safety resources, not just on this topic, but in general for their websites. So, and finally, we just want to say that the ANC Health and Safety Committee is here to help you, and we have all of this great information on our website and on our Wiki site, and that you can always email us if you have questions about anything. So, I think I'm not sure if we have time for any more questions or if Susan needs to take it. I think what we should do is tell you that we will answer all of the questions that have been posted, and we'll either do them in the forum or as a trailing question document that I will put with the recording, and I will post what happens so that you all know. Please fill out the the evaluation. It's right here. And also, I wanted to tell you about, oh, I wanted to tell you that May is the month for emergency preparedness in museums and cultural institutions, and you should check for the May Day activities that are on the ARC website. I posted that in the very beginning in the chat box, and I will post this recording, the resources, the PowerPoint, and then when we get the trailing questions, I will post them. They'll be ready in probably tomorrow or the next day. The everything, but the questions will be posted, and as I said, I'll let you know. And this is great. Thank you so much. And I think we are done with these guys. And so thank you very much. The next one is on, is in June, look on the website and it will be on Curing for Guns and Ordinance, Weapons and Ordinance. So take a look at that. I'm sorry about the time thing with this. We had a little bit of difficulty. Yeah. So thanks a lot. And we will see you next time. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Thank you, Susan.