Measuring and mitigating mercury vapour in the collection cabinets at Museums Victoria

Abstract

Mercury is present in the Museums Victoria collections in a variety of forms. These include mercuric chloride applied as a pesticide, pigments and paints containing mercury sulfide, scientific equipment containing liquid mercury and geoscience specimens including native mercury and cinnabar. All these materials can release mercury vapour into storage cabinets and have the potential to contaminate both storage surfaces and other nearby specimens. Extensive testing identified higher than acceptable levels of mercury vapour inside storage cabinets. Air from cabinets was sampled across all collecting disciplines including First Peoples, Society and Technology and Natural Sciences. Results showed levels of mercury vapour above 25 μg/m³ (TWA) in cabinets of bird skins and First Peoples’ artefacts treated with mercuric chloride pesticides and above 150 μg/m³ (TEEL) in the mineralogy collection. Mercury contamination was also detected on cabinet surfaces and storage boxes. Mitigation strategies implemented to reduce or handle this hazard include enclosing mercury minerals in gas barrier film, replacing contaminated cabinets with vented cabinets and engineering controls during the handling of specimens. Improved staff practices include procedures to dissipate vapour before accessing cabinets. Follow up testing confirmed a significant reduction of mercury vapour levels after the implementation of these mitigation strategies.

Keywords:

• Mercury vapour
• Museum collections
• Cultural heritage
• Natural sciences
• XRF spectroscopy

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the collection staff at Museums Victoria for their assistance and support for this project. In the Mineralogy collection, Dr Stuart Mills and Oskar Lindenmayer. In the Vertebrate Zoology collection Dr Karen Roberts, Dr Katie Date and Ricky-Lee Erickson. In the First Peoples collection, Melanie Raberts and in Society and Technology Hannah Perkins and Nick Crotty. We would particularly like to thank Neville Quick, collection logistics manager, and Dave Hill and Tony Forde for their assistance in replacing cabinets and installation of cabinet vents.

Disclosure statement

The authors confirm that there are no conflicting financial or non-financial competing interests to report associated with this paper.

Materials list

Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company https://www.mgc.co.jp/eng/ESCAL NEO film

SundströmSR200 full-face respiratorABEK1HgP3 gas and particle filters

Active Environmental Solutions

https://aesolutions.com.au/Jerome J405 Mercury Vapour Analyser for hire

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rosemary A. Goodall

Dr Rosemary A. Goodall, Materials Scientist, Museums Victoria is involved in the identification of materials in collections focusing on the identification of hazardous substances utilising elemental and vibrational spectroscopy. Recent research includes pharmaceuticals, plastics and polymer coatings and poisons on Malaysian darts in the Museum’s collections.

Danielle Measday

Danielle Measday is Conservator of Natural Sciences at Museums Victoria. She works closely with collection managers, curators and researchers across zoology, palaeontology and geology fields to facilitate access, manage preservation projects and conduct research to ensure best practice care for the collection.