Environmental dose-response functions of silk and paper exposed in museums.

Abstract

This paper reports 1 year of data of the environments and changes in the molecular weight of silk and the degree of polymerization of sensitive paper measured externally and indoors in 10 European museums, and the dose-response functions that were obtained by statistical analysis of this data. The measurements were performed in the EU FP5 project Master (EVK-CT-2002-00093). The work provides documentation of deterioration of silk by NO2 and O3, and alternatively in combination with UV radiation. The indoor deterioration of the silk was only observed in one location with high UV radiation. The indoor deterioration of sensitive paper correlated with the UV radiation, the concentrations of NO2 and O3, and in addition with an SO2 concentration of 4 µgm−3 and a formic acid concentration of 50 µgm−3 in two different locations. If the observed dose-response effects are linear to lower doses and longer exposure times, then the lifetime to intolerable deterioration of the paper and silk would be 6–7 times longer overall in the enclosures than in the galleries.