Connecting to Collections Care

What an unpleasant situation! I have experienced how the terrible smell can linger for years in enclosed space after a fuel oil spill and it is truly unbearable.

Is time a factor? I wonder if you have space to open a few boxes at a time in a room with extra ventilation (or in a fume hood) and leave it overnight or over the weekend when no people will need to access the space. Perhaps that would be enough time for the VOCs to dissipate. (You may want to contact your university Health and Safety staff ahead of time, to be sure the gases are not venting in violation of local hazardous materials regulations.)

Another option, if funding is available, could be to rent a truck with a ventilation system (similar to a freezer truck) and place the collection on shelves inside the truck; it could run 24/7 until the materials have finished offgassing. A containment tent with ventilation unit is a similar option, but you may need to find space inside a building to set it up. 

Good luck!

Original Message:
Sent: 03-20-2024 12:06
From: Leslie Courtois
Subject: fuel oil exposure

Luisa,

I think the smell is strong because there was a very large quantity of oil in the room for a long time, and it probably got hot in there which helped it to volatize, then there was no ventilation to the room. We can't spend more than 5 minutes around the material because it starts to cause headaches, which is enough for us to feel that we can't expose employees to endless hours of dealing with it, even with precautions in place because the precautions themselves are cumbersome to natural breathing and there may be skin exposure as well if they don't keep themselves properly covered. I'm sure there is data on that but I haven't had a chance to research it, it just seemed to me to be an obvious toxic situation based on my general knowledge. Again, I'm looking for a way to reduce the off gassing and possible speed up the process and I don't expect to fully solve the problem. Thanks for info about ozone treatment, I had looked into it and saw some references to the problems you described but they were not specific to paper and the possible degradation of paper, so that is very helpful.

Leslie Courtois Conservator  804.692.3511       leslie.courtois@lva.virginia.gov  800 East Broad St. | Richmond, VA 23219  www.lva.virginia.gov

Original Message:
Sent: 3/20/2024 10:27:00 AM
From: Luisa Casella
Subject: RE: fuel oil exposure

Dear Leslie,

I reached out to expert colleagues that offer volunteer support to C2CC and there were some follow-up questions.

- If there was no direct contact of the objects with the oil, is the noxious smell only caused by outgassing the oil to the documents?

- Is there any data or reason to believe that the fumes are toxic or just unpleasant? 

One suggestion:

Contact a recovery vendor like Polygon.

A caution on ozone treatments:

Often disaster recovery companies use an ozone generator to deodorize textiles and paper that stinks of smoke or mildew. Ozone is a known agent for accelerating decay in paper. Unfortunately, the disaster recovery companies have no way to measure the exposure to ozone in their ozone rooms. Furthermore, measuring the exposure may be irrelevant because there is no research to provide guidance on how much ozone exposure would result in damage to paper. You would have to determine the risk - is accelerated deterioration of the paper worth it to gain a shorter useful life of the documents without the smell. In addition, it is possible  that ozone doesn't work on oil fume smells, so a small test batch may be in order.

Finally, some companies spray scented oils after an ozone treatment, as a way to mask any residual odors. You should ask the disaster recovery company about their practice and specify that these papers should not have fragrances applied.

We hope this helps as a starting point. Feel free to follow up on the thread in response to the added questions.

Best,

Luisa

C2CC Monitor

----------------------------------

Luisa Casella

Photograph Conservator

MAC, Fellow of AIC

T: 585 281 3747

Dear Leslie,

Placing the records in a vacuum chamber should accelerate the off-gassing of the fuel oil volatiles absorbed by the paper without otherwise affecting the documents.   Perhaps the science departments of the nearby universities could lend assistance.

Hi Leslie, 

There are three ways to speed up off gassing; increase airflow/ventilation, increase temperature, decrease pressure (vacuum).  A fume hood is a great way to treat a large volume of material with little impact on the objects.  Increasing temperature may not be ideal for your collections, but you know them best.  And depending on the VOCs and equipment used, a vacuum chamber may not be appropriate as the outgassed products may damage the system.  Airflow and temperature controls are your best options.  

I think given the quantity of material that working with a disaster recovery vendor like Polygon, Balfour or other if your institution already has a relationship with one, would be a useful path of inquiry. They are often set up to handle large quantities and generally have vacuum chambers etc. 

Leslie, good to hear from you but sorry for the reason!  I would definitely bring in any Health & Safety folks at LVA or from the State.  If the records are in the Library or the Records Center, the fumes could be pulled into the building's HVAC & spread to other parts of the building.  Are the records in the boxes from the cellar?  If so, perhaps reboxing would eliminate some of the off-gassing.  This project definitely sounds like a good job for a vendor, especially if you consider health & safety of LVA staff.

Best wishes & good luck!  Bryan

Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2024 16:10
From: Leslie Courtois
Subject: fuel oil exposure

Thank you everyone for the suggestions so far, they have given me some avenues to pursue. We do have a disaster recovery vendor and had not thought of that, but it does make sense. We did not own the material when the disaster happened, so it will be interesting to see if that is a possibility. It would be great, because otherwise my fume hood has very limited capacity.

Leslie Courtois Conservator  804.692.3511       leslie.courtois@lva.virginia.gov  800 East Broad St. | Richmond, VA 23219  www.lva.virginia.gov

Original Message:
Sent: 3/21/2024 12:33:00 PM
From: Rachael Arenstein
Subject: RE: fuel oil exposure

I think given the quantity of material that working with a disaster recovery vendor like Polygon, Balfour or other if your institution already has a relationship with one, would be a useful path of inquiry. They are often set up to handle large quantities and generally have vacuum chambers etc. 

------------------------------
Rachael Arenstein
A.M. Art Conservation, LLC
rachael@amartconservation.com
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2024 11:36
From: Nichole Doub
Subject: fuel oil exposure

Hi Leslie, 

There are three ways to speed up off gassing; increase airflow/ventilation, increase temperature, decrease pressure (vacuum).  A fume hood is a great way to treat a large volume of material with little impact on the objects.  Increasing temperature may not be ideal for your collections, but you know them best.  And depending on the VOCs and equipment used, a vacuum chamber may not be appropriate as the outgassed products may damage the system.  Airflow and temperature controls are your best options.  

------------------------------
Nichole Doub
Head Conservator
Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory
Saint Leonard MD