Coming in late to this conversation so I don't know if anyone has posted the attached ADA information regarding service dogs and therapy dogs.  Might answer some of the questions.

Mary E. Thompson, Ph.D.

Senior Collections Manager
Idaho Museum of Natural History/ISU
921 South 8th Street
ISU Stop 8096
Pocatello, ID  83209
Ph. (208)282-4151

On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 12:18 PM, Deb Fuller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi Dave and others,

You bring up a good point about hazardous materials but wouldn't use of those products be under job accommodations? If a solvent or glue has fumes and must be used in a well-ventilated area and with gloves and a mask, that isn't going to affect a dog, which can be told to sit across the room. 

As for working with different types of materials, I get the feeling that people don't have much experience with service animals and think they are like family pets that will follow someone around and get underfoot. They are specifically trained NOT to do that. They are no more of a tripping hazard than another human being. If someone needs to have their animal at their side at all times, it might take a bit to get used to having the animal following them around but it's something that can be done. When you are in a collections storage area, you don't rush around with priceless objects anyway. 

Dogs can be clipped and groomed to minimize dander and hair and they're only in the storage areas for limited amounts of time per day anyway. I'm sure there are doggy clean coats or jackets that can be used on them as well. And let's face it, a lot of storage areas are in less than ideal spaces anyway. We'd like to have the perfectly climate controlled room with the hepa-filter that stays at a constant temperature and humidity level but many museums make do with what is available. Getting fussy about a dog when you're running a humidifier or have an archaic HVAC system is going a little overboard. I'd wager than many of our storage rooms and conservation areas aren't even ADA compliant and you couldn't accommodate someone in a wheelchair or who had other issues but could otherwise do the job.

Best,

Deb Fuller

On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 12:32 PM, topladave . <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Just one caveat to this discussion. OSHA mandates that all hazardous materials in the workplace be inventoried and their Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) be kept in a binder and made available to workers. As part of a worker safety program in several places I have worked employees, interns, and volunteers, had to read those MSDS sheets, be trained in personal protection equipment (PPE), and sign that they had completed the training before being allowed to work with those substances. There are a range of hazardous materials of concern in museums - they can range from regular cleaning products used on floors and bathrooms, to paints, solvents used for labelling, pest control chemicals,  to dust, conservation materials if done in-house, to the materials in the art and historic objects themselves.

So unless you identify the hazzards in the workplace and understand the mechanism of risk and entry (entry is how they affect the body - are they respiratory? Do they enter through skin or eyes? Do they enter through ingestion?) you really can't protect people let alone service animals.

What is missinf from this discussion is this. What is the job? What are the expected duties? What is the interaction in the job with the collections? What are the types of collections that the person would work with?

Those will have a big bearing on any concerns about having a service animal present. For instance, having a service animal around stone or metal objects is less of a concern than it being around textiles or paintings or fraglie objects like glass. 

So there has to be a full assessment of the job and the workplace and materials in the workplace and used there, before you can make an informed judgement on this.

Cheers!

Dave

David Harvey

Senior Conservator & Museum Consultant 

Los Angeles CA. USA 

www.cityofangelsconservation.weebly.com

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