Hazards

General
  • Museum of London. Hazards in Collections e-Tool website
  • The Pharmaceutical Press (1972). Martindale, The Extra Pharmacopoeia, 26th Edition
  • Marshall S. and Riddle J. (2023). A tale of hazards: Ingenium’s industrial collections move
  • Makos K., Koss Schrager K. and Kingery-Schwartz A. (2016). Arsenic & Old Lace: Controlling Hazardous Collection Materials
  • Turgeon-Brunet E., O’Rourke S. and Wilson M. Parks Canada Agency (2021) Hazardous Objects, Guidelines: for historical and archaeological objects
  • SHARE East (2022). Hazards in Museums: A Seven Step Guide (poster) 
  • Health & Safety Executive. Principles of good control practice
  • Gribovich A. et al. (2013) Assessment of Arsenic Surface Contamination in a Museum Anthropology Department
Personal Protective Equipment
Mercury
  • Canadian Conservation Institute (2002). Mercury in Museum Collections CCI Note 1/7
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mercury Spill Cleanup (YouTube)
  • Goodall R. A. and Measday D. (2020) Measuring and mitigating mercury vapour in the collection cabinets at Museums Victoria, AICCM Bulletin, 41:2, 140-151
  • Hadsund P. (1993). The tin-mercury mirror: its manufacturing technique and deterioration processes
  • Hawks C. et al (2004). An inexpensive method to test for mercury vapor in herbarium cabinets
  • Public Health England (2016). Inorganic Mercury/Elemental Mercury Toxicological Overview
  • Purewal V. (2012). Novel Detection and Removal of Hazardous Biocide Residues Historically Applied to Herbaria
  • Strahan D. and Tsukada M. (2016). Measuring mercury emissions from cinnabar lacquer objects
Lead
  • Canadian Conservation Institute (2010). Lead in Museum Collections and Heritage Buildings CCI Note 1/8
  • Health and Safety Executive (2002). L132 Control of lead at work (3rd edition)
  • Health and Safety Executive (2012). Lead and You INDG305 (rev2)
  • Health and Safety Executive. Working safely with lead web pages
  • Hynes M. and Jonson B. (1997). Lead glass and the environment
  • Korfmacher K. and Dixon S. (2007). Reliability of spot test kits for detecting lead in household dust
  • UK Health Security Agency. Lead Toxicological Overview
  • Schotte B. and Adriaens A. (2006). Treatments of Corroded Lead Artefacts: An Overview
  • Sohn E. (2019). Lead: Versatile Metal, Long Legacy
  • Wang Y. et al. (2019). A technological combination of lead-glaze and calcium-glaze recently found in China
Arsenic
  • Baldwin A. et al (2025) Addressing the Presence of Arsenical Bindings in the British Library’s Collections
  • Cane, D. and Gayle, M. (2012). Safe handling of museum collections containing arsenic
  • Farber P. (1975). The Development of Taxidermy and the History of Ornithology
  • Hawksley L. (2016). Bitten by Witch Fever: Wallpaper & Arsenic in the Victorian Home
  • Health & Safety Executive (2013). Arsenic & You: Working with arsenic are you at risk? INDG4441
  • Helwig K. (1995). The reliability of spot tests for the detection of arsenic and mercury in natural history collections: a case study
  • Hendry D. (1999). Vertebrates, Care and Conservation of Natural History Collections
  • Henry E. (1996). The Merckoquant 10026 Arsenic Test for Natural History Collections
  • Public Health England (2016). Arsenic Toxicological Overview
  • Royal Society of Chemistry. Arsenic
  • Sirois P. J. (2001). The Analysis of Museum Objects for the Presence of Arsenic and Mercury: Non-Destructive Analysis and Sample Analysis
  • Whorton J. (2010). The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain was Poisoned at Home, Work, and Play
Asbestos
  • Carr L. (2019). Asbestos in collections
  • Castleman B. I. (1990). Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects (3rd Edition)
  • ETWIE / Ziterasbestin. Asbestos in heritage database
  • Health and Safety Executive. Asbestos 
  • Inspectapedia. Asbestos Identification & Hazards
  • International Agency for Research on Cancer (2012). IARC monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans, volume 100C: Asbestos
  • Kakoulli I. et al (2014). Earliest evidence for asbestos composites linked to Byzantine Wallpaintings production
  • Maines R. (2005). Asbestos & Fire: Technological Trade-Offs and the Body at Risk
  • McCulloch J. and Tweedale G. (2008). Defending the Indefensible, The Global Asbestos Industry and its fight for Survival
  • Museum of London. Hazards in Collections e-Tool Preliminary Asbestos Checklist
  • Selikoff I. and Lee D. (1978). Asbestos and Disease
  • Tweedale G. (2000). Magic Mineral to Killer Dust, Turner & Newall and the asbestos hazard
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2011). NTP Report on Carcinogens, Twelfth Edition
  • Van Horssen J. (2016). A Town Called Asbestos
  • Wendelbo H. (2016). Asbestos Ceramics along the West Norwegian Coast – Influences, Age and Morphology in the Bronze Age/ Early Pre-Roman Iron Age (ca. 1700–400 BC)
Ionising Radiation
  • Frame P. (2012). Historical Instrument Collection (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
  • Health and Safety Executive. Radiation Resources
  • Kolb W. and Frame P. (2012). Living with Radiation: The First Hundred Years
  • Rowe S. (2018). Managing Small Radioactive Collections in the UK: Experiences from the Polar Museum, Cambridge
  • Santos L. J. (2020). Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium
  • Skelcher B. (2002). The Big Book of Vaseline Glass
  • Warren S. (2010). Dealing with Radiation Hazards: The Luminous Dial Project at the Canada Science and Technology Museum
Pesticides and Preservatives
  • Angelova L. et al (2023) The use of ‘poisonous insecticidal solutions’ in bookbinding: coping with historic pesticide treatments in the archive
  • Deering K. et al (2020) Exposure assessment of toxic metals and organochlorine pesticides among employees of a natural history museum
  • Goldberg L. and Pool M., (2025) C2C Care Course Investigating Contamination and Pesticides in Cultural Heritage Collections, FAIC
  • Horie C. V. ed. (1989). Conservation of natural history specimens: Spirit collections
  • Kingham E. L. (2016). Project Pickle – Conserving our Specimens Preserved in Fluid
  • National Park Service (1993). Removing Wet Specimens from Long-Term Storage in Formalin Conserve O Gram leaflet 11/1 Odegaard N,, Sadongei A. and Associates (2005). Old Poisons, New Problems
  • Odegaard N. (2019) Pesticide Contamination and Archaeological Collections: Contextual Information for Preparing a Pesticide History
  • Pool M., The Pesticide Database
  • Simmons J. (2014). Fluid Preservation. A Comprehensive Reference
  • Sirois P. J., Poulin J. and Stone T. (2010). Detecting Pesticide Residues on Museum Objects in Canadian Collections—A Summary of Surveys Spanning a Twenty-Year Period
  • Tello H. (2023) Journey into a Toxic Past: Pest Control in Museums at the End of the Nineteenth & Early Twentieth Centuries presented at Hazardous Heritage: Working With and Around Dangerous Materials in Cultural Heritage, Antwerp, Belgium
Mould and Fungi
  • Aspergillus & Aspergillosis Patient and Carer Support
  • Canadian Conservation Institute. Resources on mould in heritage collections
  • Canadian Conservation Institute. Removing Mould from Leather
  • Canadian Conservation Institute. Mould Growth on Textiles 
  • Child R. E. (2004). Mould outbreaks in library and archive collections
  • Di Carlo E. et al. (2016). Fungi and Bacteria in Indoor Cultural Heritage Environments: Microbial-related Risks for Artworks and Human Health
  • Florian M. (1997). Heritage Eaters: Insects and Fungi in Heritage Collections
  • National Archives, The Mould in archive collections
  • National Park Service (2007). Mold: Prevention of Growth in Museum Collections Conserve O Gram 3/4
  • State Library of New South Wales. Conservation Tip 05: Removing mould from records
  • World Health Organisation (2009). WHO guidelines for indoor air quality: dampness and mould
  • World Health Organisation (2018). Aflatoxins
Other hazardous substances/non-chemical hazards
  • US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Facts About Abrin
  • Crown Prosecution Service. Firearms Legal Guidance
  • Crown (2001). The Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001
  • Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): registration, disposal, labelling
  • Dracos T. (2010). Biocidal: Confronting the Poisonous Legacy of PCBs
  • Filmcare.org
  • Fischer M. C. and Robb A. (1993). Guidelines for Care & Identification of Film-Base Photographic Materials
  • Fitzwilliam Museum. Illuminated, Manuscripts in the making
  • Home Office. Firearms licensing law
  • Home Office (2017). List of most commonly encountered drugs currently controlled under the misuse of drugs legislation
  • Lama et al (2011) Investigation of Acid-Deterioration in Leather Leading towards Finding a Suitable Product for Treatment
  • Lee M. R. (2005). Curare: The South American arrow poison
  • ColourLex
  • Matthews David A. (2017). Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present
  • National Park Service (1998). Caring for Cellulose Nitrate Film Conserve O Gram 14/8
  • National Science and Media Museum. Introduction to Nitrate Film
  • Nguyen C. T. (2020) The Care and Preservation of Electronics and its Circuit Systems
  • Public Health England (2009). Carbon Tetrachloride Toxicological Overview
  • Public Health England (2009). Carbon tetrachloride General Information
  • Ulbricht C. ed (2004). An Evidence-Based Systematic Review of Belladonna by the Natural Standard Research Collaboration
  • United Nations Environment Programme (1999). Guidelines for the Identification of PCBs and Materials Containing PCBs
  • US Environmental Protection Agency (2000). Carbon tetrachloride
  • US Environmental Protection Agency. Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
  • Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library / University of Delaware. The Poison Book Project
  • World Health Organization (2003). Polychlorinated Biphenyls: Human Health Aspects
  • Health and Safety Executive. Electrical Safety
  • Health and Safety Executive. Optical Radiation