Pollutants In The Museum Environment

The focus of this publication is pollutants in the museum environment, their sources, how they can harm works of art, and what to do about it.

With an emphasis on passive sampling, this volume focuses on the environmental monitoring for common gaseous pollutants. It offers an overview of the history and nature of pollutants of concern to museums and the challenges facing scientists, conservators, and managers seeking to develop target pollutant guidelines to protect cultural property.

The Museum Environment, Second Edition deals with the behavior and conservation of the various classes of museum exhibit. This book is divided into six sections that provide museum specifications for conservation. This text highlights the three contributing factors in the deterioration and decay of museum exhibits, namely light, humidity, and air pollution. Each section describes the mechanism of deterioration and the appropriate “preventive conservation . The changes in this edition from the previous include the electronic hygrometry, fluorescent lamps, buffered cases, air conditioning systems, and data logging and control in historic buildings. This book is of great value to conservation researchers and museum workers.

The Museum Environment is in two parts; Part I: intended for conservators and museum curators and describes the principles and techniques of controlling the environment so that the potentially damaging effects of light, humidity and air pollution on museum exhibits may be minimised. Part II: the author brings together and summarises information and data, hitherto widely scattered in the literature of diverse fields, which is essential to workers in conservation research. Since the timely publication of the first two editions of this book in hardback, interest in preventive conservation has continued to grow strongly making publication of this paperback edition all the more welcome. Those whose responsibility it is to care for the valuable and beautiful objects in the world's collections have become increasingly aware that it is better to prevent their deterioration, by ensuring that they are housed and displayed in the best possible environmental conditions, than to wait until restoration and repair are necessary. The changes for the second edition have been mainly concentrated in the sections on electronic hygrometry, new fluorescent lamps, buffered cases, air conditioning systems, data logging, and control within historic buildings. A new appendix, giving a summary of museum specificiations for conservation, provides a useful, quick reference.

The key to the survival of museum collections is a stable indoor environment and vital to this is a well-maintained building with effective environmental services. Environmental Management sets out clearly the theory and practice of achieving an appropriate museum environment for both collections and people. The book emphasises the need for planning and places the environmental needs of museum collections at the forefront of the responsibilities of museum managers. May Cassar stresses the role of the building as the first line of defence against environmental instability, recognising the importance of regular environmental monitoring and control, and the division of museum spaces into critical areas housing collections and non-critical areas accommodating offices, cafes and communal spaces. Environmental Management presents a strategic approach to environmental management, in contrast to the piecemeal approach to environmental monitoring and control still practised by many museums. However, rather than providing ready solutions and rigid rules, the book introduces principles and ideas on which to base decisions about creating the appropriate environment.

This study represents the latest in a series of research activities aimed at a better understanding of the origin and fate of air pollution within the built environment. Most previous studies of air pollution in cultural institutions have focused on gases. Particles were ignored for many reasons: they seemed to be more easily removed by the building; gaseous air pollutants had been well studied by industry, and their effects on commercial products were heavily documented; and many particle types were considered chemically benign to almost all surfaces. Even carbon black, which is now known to pose enormous degradation risks to the optical and color qualities of paintings and tapestries, is almost totally inert. Recognizing this, and understanding that we needed to know much more about the physics of particle intrusion in museum buildings, in 1987 the Environmental Engineering Lab at the California Institute of Technology, under contract to the Getty Conservation Institute, began a detailed examination of five different museums in Southern California. These structures represent a diverse range of architectural and ventilation types. Through this study a powerful computer model was developed that could predict the soiling effects of changes made to the operation or maintenance of a building. This model can even be used to estimate the soiling rates of new buildings or major rehabilitations before any construction work is begun. This is an important contribution to both the conservation community and the broader field of air quality science.

With the quality of indoor air ranking highly in our lives, this second, completely, revised edition now includes 12 completely new chapters addressing both chemical and analytical aspects of organic pollutants. Sources of indoor air pollutants, measurement and detection as well as evaluation are covered filling the gap in the literature caused by this topical subject. This book is divided into four clearly defined parts: measuring organic indoor pollutants, investigation concepts and quality guidelines, field studies, and emission studies. The authors cover physico-chemical fundamentals of organic pollutants, relevant definitions and terminology, emission sources, sampling techniques and instrumentation, exposure assessment as well as methods for control. Test methods and studies for various indoor environments are described, such as automobile interiors, museum environments, or rooms with air ventilation. Emission sources covered include household and consumer products as well as electronic devices and office equipment. The book is aimed at chemists, physicists, biologists, and medical doctors at universities and research facilities, in industry and environmental laboratories as well as regulative bodies.