Lecture 24 - Tiffany Eng Moore

Tiffany Eng Moore, Book & Paper Conservator, TEM Conservation

Overview

The ability to detect and remediate of mould to a ‘safe’ level for users of cultural heritage objects is an important concern to conservation specialists. The variety of historic and contemporary approaches to remediation, as well as the growing body of research on the health hazards posed by fungi have not always provided straightforward methods to determining the level of risk a mould outbreak poses, or how best to determine if treatment methods are successful. In the recent years, rapid adenosine bioluminescent swab testers (ATP testers) have begun appearing in the conservation field with two primary uses: identifying if mould/fungi is present, and as an objective method for determining if a remediated object is “clean enough” to be returned to regular use.

Currently, testing methods rely on information from other sectors (e.g. hygiene), but with modifications for the fragile, often porous substrates of cultural heritage objects. This talk is the summary of an exploratory research project which presents an initial examination of the parameters and reliability of rapid adenylate testing for use in conservation, and assess their utility in determining when an artefact is sufficiently “clean”.