Mary Ames,

As a rule we deal with fluids case-by-case but in the end we dispose of
most fluids in containers destined for the permanent collection. Past
experience supports our caution (and may I point out that one of the perks
of being a Registrar/Collections Manager is saying "I told you so").

Disposing of some materials is easy - water, food stuffs, some soaps, and
other non-caustic materials go down the drain or into the garbage.
Medicine, caustic agents, alcohol, combustibles, and other chemicals you
don't want in the groundwater are a different matter.  Environmental and
public safety agencies will deal with these materials at a great cost and
you will probably lose the container.  You have a better chance of
recovering the container if you know what's inside - in these situations
ignorance is not bliss.  Talking to these agencies will give you a better
idea of how to dispose of the least serious materials.

Storing all these materials together, even in a cabinet designed for
hazardous materials, can be dangerous - one leak can set off a chain
reaction.  Better to seperate the materials and store like-items together
in the best storage you've got - fluctuations in temperature and humidity
can wreak havoc on jar stoppers and caps.  Clearly indicate those storage
areas containing hazardous materials.  Check often for deterioration.

The biggest questions in these situations are: Is the container significant
without the contents?  What will happen when the container leaks?  What
will happen when the material changes composition?  How will we dispose of
this material?  In most cases we've determined it's probably better to
dispose of the fluids before they turn into something REALLY hazardous.

It's not just the stuff in jars and boxes that pose a threat - think about
the artifacts with batteries, lubricants, coolants, gun powder, arsenic,
and known  carcinogens.


Jodi Evans
Registrar
State Historical Society of Iowa

"I may not know when something dire will happen, I only know it will"

P.S. Your query reminds me of last summer when I spent weeks trying to
dispose of a fluid in a glass jar marked "Thoracic" that was part of a
turn-of-the-century embalming set. No City agency would touch the jar - not
the Police Dept, Fire Dept, Has-Mat Team, City Water Works, nor the
Environmental Waste Agency.  Even a local funeral home couldn't help. All
wanted to know what was in the jar (that's what I was trying to find out),
and/or wanted a great deal of money to dispose of one jar.  I finally ended
up at the State Bureau of Criminal Invesigation labs watching a drug
technician and an arson invesigator gleefully pry the stopper out of the
jar and smell the contents.  Based on this scientific method they
determined the liquid was ordinary, although quite old, embalming fluid and
disposed of it through their labs.  I got to keep the jar.