{"id":10846,"date":"2014-06-28T19:00:54","date_gmt":"2014-06-29T00:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/?p=10846"},"modified":"2014-06-28T19:00:54","modified_gmt":"2014-06-29T00:00:54","slug":"42nd-annual-meeting-conservators-in-private-practice-may-28-greening-your-conservation-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/2014\/06\/28\/42nd-annual-meeting-conservators-in-private-practice-may-28-greening-your-conservation-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"42nd Annual Meeting – Conservators in Private Practice, May 28, "Greening your Conservation Practice.""},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBelieving heat wheels<\/a> work is like believing you can section off a part of a hot tub for peeing.<\/em>\u201d<\/h3>\n

Headline speaker Monona Rossol began this year\u2019s CIPP workshop with her characteristic flair when referring to the use of the heat exchange system with contaminated air streams. The system is often recommended to score points for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design<\/a> (LEED) certification and served as an example of how greener practices may not necessarily be safer practices.\u00a0 An Industrial Hygienist and health and safety champion for the arts community, Monona is the founder of Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety<\/a> (ACTS). If you don\u2019t leave one of her lectures concerned about everything you have ever come in contact with, you should at the very least have a better idea of how to navigate your way through the jargon of government, industry and product health and safety information.
\nThe beginning of Monona\u2019s talk introduced the pitfalls of blindly accepting the safety information provided by government regulatory organizations and manufacturers. In her explanation of many of the acronyms associated with chemical classifications and exposure assessments, Monona emphasized that it\u2019s what we don\u2019t know about chemicals that is the most concerning. For example, phrases such as \u201cnot listed as a carcinogen\u201d and \u201cgenerally recognized as safe\u201d do not indicate that the chemical is not toxic, but may mean that it has never been tested. She also reviewed the improved chemical labeling and Safety Data Sheets (SDSs), as outlined by the new OSHA Hazard Communication Standard<\/a>. Even though SDSs are better than their predecessors, Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs), they still are limited by lack of information. Finally, she discussed commercially manipulated and undefined “green” phrases like all natural–<\/em>just because something comes from nature does not make it is safe–and biodegradable–<\/em>\u00a0chemicals can breakdown into compounds that can be more toxic than what you started with.
\nSo what can we do as conservators and consumers to protect ourselves, the others we work with and the environment?<\/p>\n