Pesticides in collections

The Central Science/Artful Science blog has an interesting post (Arsenic contaminated artifacts) about objects contaminated with biocides (pesticides). 

Ethnographic collections are full of such objects, even though it is not always easy to tell when an object has been treated with a biocide or not. The ICOM-CC Working Group on Ethnographic Collections has a page dedicated to the subject, with a lot of useful information on identification and mitigation. As you will see, there are quite a few ways to identify biocides but unfortunately we still do not have enough methods to counteract or eliminate the biocides.