Chrysotile

The Australian Government is following the European Union by
announcing the declaration of a prohibition on the use of chrysotile
(white asbestos) in Australia.  This ban may have serious
consequence for collecting policies of Museums in Australia because
under the new prohibition Museums may not be permitted to obtain a
new object for their collection that contains asbestos. An example:
an object containing asbestos, will not be able to be borrowed or
conserved if it contains asbestos that is not stabilised or safely
encapsulated.

How are Museums in the EU dealing with a similar ban? Are there any
exemptions under the occupational health and safety legislation to
enable Museums to obtain objects containing asbestos or conserving a
object containing asbestos?

Margaret Kennedy
Occupational Health and Safety practitioner


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 15:55
                 Distributed: Friday, February 8, 2002
                       Message Id: cdl-15-55-014
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