Sorry - the "poly" rule doesn't really hold up!

Would rather wish that it were all that simple but its not.

There are significant difference even between various Polyethylene products.

You also need to be mindful that even with "archival" polyethylene bags and
enclosures that there is an air-exchange and moisture exchange rate - albeit a
slow one. The polyethylene bag is still permeable and will allow ambient Rh
and pollutants to eventually reach the object inside. If this is a matter of
concern for particularly sensitive collections then you might need to consider
alternatives - there are specialty polyethylene bags for metals and electronics
that contain scavengers that absorb pollutants (static intercept is one scuh
product).

There are a couple of places to find information on materials.

One is C.A.M.E.O. , the Conservation and Art Materials Encyclopedia brought
to you by the wonderful museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The URL is:

http://www.mfa.org/conservation/cameo.htm

The other resource that I would really, really sugest that you use in COOL or
Conservation Online -

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Artifacts
2930 South Birch Street
Denver, CO  80222
303-300-5257
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