You wrote: From: "Jensen, Lars Aasbjerg" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: [Consdistlist] Artificial scent - object damage, health issues - or not?
Our exhibition planners want to use artificial scents in our exhibitions and we are concerned that the compounds in the aerosols may harm the objects. Further, some people are sensitive to scents and may develop allergic reactions. Please share your thoughts regarding scent in museum exhibitions. Hi Lars I just had a bit of a conversation on this subject a couple of months back. In summary: Artificial scents are volatile fragrant oils which evaporate to be smelled, but can condense later on object surfaces and/or chemically react with object materials. The effect is small, but they build up over time, and are generally frowned upon. As for health effects, allergies are individual. Whatever substance you have, some individual somewhere will be allergic to it. Because smells are airborne, people can't choose not to contact them. Perfumes tend to be more allergenic than many other substances, and museums attract a broad cross section of people, so you will have people who are allergic. All the more reason to avoid such things. Some scents might be so irritating that nearly everybody reacts to them. Hope that helps. Val Valerie Tomlinson | Conservator | Auckland War Memorial Museum | Tamaki Paenga Hira | The Domain, Private Bag 92018, Victoria Street West, Auckland 1142, New Zealand | www.aucklandmuseum.com | M | P +64 9 306 7070 ext7304 | F | E [email protected] Auckland Museum Trust Board ("Auckland Museum") accepts no liability for any opinion contained in this email. The material in this email is confidential to the recipient named above. If you are not the intended recipient: please do not copy, use or disclose this communication; please notify us immediately by email or by telephone (64 9 309 0443) and then delete this email. Where this is a communication unrelated to the business of Auckland Museum, Auckland Museum does not accept any responsibility for its contents. ##################################################################################### This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared by MailMarshal ##################################################################################### ****** Unsubscribe by sending a message to [email protected] Searchable archives: http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/
