42nd Annual Meeting – Health and Safety Session, May 31st, "Sustainability for the Conservator: Mold Remediation"

This short session was presented by Chris Stavroudis (Conservator in Private Practice) and Steven Pine (Senior Conservator for Decorative Arts, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and AIC-CERT member), and was sub-titled “Lessons from Super Storm Sandy.”
Chris began the session by acknowledging that he is not a mold expert, though he has had plenty of experience dealing with mold and art/artifacts, and highlighted Elise Rousseau in the audience as a fellow AIC member with significant mold remediation experience (Elise also presented an excellently detailed and informative poster at the meeting, which can be found here). The activities of the Cultural Recovery Center in Brooklyn immediately following Super Storm Sandy dealt with a lot of mold. The CRC opened to provide expertise to assist artists and owners in salvaging their works. Chris referenced the Mold Remediation workshop, and summarized mold as a form of biodeterioration that also acts as an allergen, and that mold by-products can stain art or be toxic to people. He mentioned that most people have some sensitivity to mold, and some people develop a hypersensitivity either through multiple exposures or even single instances of massive overexposure.
As this was a Health & Safety Session, the emphasis was on Personal Protective Equipment – gloves, suits, respirators or full masks with cartridges for toxic mold by-products. The PPE needs to be appropriate for what you’re working on/the environment you are working in. In instances with large amounts of mold,  eye protection can be important. You particularly do not want to track mold everywhere or bring it home.
Some tips on PPE:
When working with a large amount of moldy objects, it can be a good idea to have multiple rooms to separate the bulk of mold activity – hot/warm/cold sections, where hot  = the highest mold activity.
It is ideal to use a Tyvek coveralls/body suit – while they are meant to be disposable (and personally I feel you should discard the suit after exposure, though at ~$12 each this may become cost prohibitive), you can also wipe down suits with sanitizing wipes or an alcohol/water solution.
You also want to bring separate clothes to go home in – you can bring kitchen bags to segragate your clothing when changing into PPE. There will be less cleaning of associated bags and clothes when leaving a “hot” area.
Steven Pine volunteered to demonstrate the right way to put on your PPE – the demonstration was somewhat hilarious, with a couple false starts and emphasized the need for a buddy-system to help.

 
You should put on your Tyvek suit in a clean/cold zone. They recommend having a roll of green Frog Tape, in case the suit tears or as a way to make the suit fit a little better – tyvek suits are one-size-fits-all, and using the tape to tighten waistlines or shorten arm/leg lengths makes it a little less cumbersome to wear. Painters tape/blue tape does not work as well, as removing it can cause the suit to tear, it may not stick to the tyvek, and will peel in a damp environment. Steve also recommended using the Frog Tape to label yourself on the front and back, as once suited up all people tend to look the same.
Elise advised using cotton face masks (also known as a “spray sock”) when wearing a respirator, as it makes them more comfortable to wear – I would suggest making sure you are still able to get a tight fit while wearing both (doing the breathe in/out test in your respirator). You should arrive with your face mask/respirator bagged, and bag it again after use. It can be very difficult to communicate with a mask on – it may be useful to have a notepad or similar to write things down.
Tyvek shoe covers/booties are also advised as another barrier over shoes – the gap between the booties and the coverall legs can be taped closed. Using the booties with the coveralls makes everything disposable.
When getting dressed, you should put your gloves on first. Wearing cotton gloves under nitrile gloves can make long term wear less irritating. Once gloves are on, it can be difficult to tear tap, so you need a buddy or prepare torn tape strips accessible beforehand. Wearing multiple nitrile gloves or thicker work gloves can be useful, in case the outer layer is torn or stained, that way you can peel off the soiled layers.
A trick from Steve is to make a tape loops attached to arms for pens, etc – acts as a utility belt to hang things on. Also, a tip to tape down the upper part of the zipper to prevent it from traveling down while you’re working.
Overall, you are going to be very uncomfortable – it is advised to bring whatever is necessary to make yourself comfortable afterward, such as a change of clean clothing, as well as wet wipes for refreshing yourself afterward.
When removing your PPE, be strategic so that everything peels inside out – hook underneath the gloves to pull them off inside out. Encompass gloves with each other so that the interior sides are on the outside. The respirator is put on UNDERNEATH the tyvek hood, so it is removed last.

Elise cautioned that all items in contact with mold (including PPE) may need to be disposed of as hazardous waste – clear trash bags are good for hazmat disposal, as it allows waste management to assess the contents.
There are occasionally problems when working in a disaster environment, such as how much PPE you where when your host doesn’t or can’t wear any? It is a judgement call on the part of the conservator, and based on how bad the situation is.
After the PPE demonstration, the talk went to mold treatments, and some new recipes that are being used (namely Elise Rousseau’s research and application – see poster). The speakers mentioned the recognition that fungi have a growing resistance to fungicides and bleaches, and warn against using thymol. As there was a lot of information being passed very quickly, I managed to snap some pics of slides with recipes and treatment protocols – be advised that all materials should be tested to determine the effects of remediation treatments! You have to weigh the effects of the treatment against the possible effects of mold growth on the art/artifacts.

There was also some discussion on how to build containment units, something that Elise is also very well versed in. A double walled containmnet unit with doors and air extractors/scrubbers with HEPA filters or venting to the exterior is recommended – I managed to snap a pic of an illustrative slide, but I would recommend working with an engineer or someone well versed in creating such a unit before building one yourself.

All in all it was a very informative session with great tips and advice from people who have a lot of experience working in mold remediation – there is definitely room for more research on the effectiveness of traditional and emerging remediation treatments, as well as getting a better understanding of how mold and mold remediation treatments could affect various types of substrates. Also, it would be useful to have a clear step-by-step guide for putting on and removing PPE in the appropriate order for mold treatments – perhaps the presenters could work on publishing a short chart in the AIC Newsletter?