pollutant materials and pollution control at cupertino de miranda foundation

Dr. António Cupertino de Miranda Foundation is the owner of a toy automobile, trains and boats collection, mainly constituted of zinc alloy (zamac).The characteristics of the displayed materials used in the exhibition, essentially wood composites and carpeting, reads to foreseeing a certain vulnerability and consequent future alteration and decay of the existing collection. This work aimed to identify some of the pollutant materials and to characterize their emissions, to develop low cost monitoring methods easily performed by the museum staff members and to propose new solutions in order to delay a possible degradation of the collection, keeping the current exhibition conditions. Among the solutions proposed are the replacement of the existing MDF with MDF free from moisture or flame resistant treatments and the introduction of RB4 activated charcoal.