Past and present pest mitigation: insights from an international survey of practices

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2448-1750.revmae.2024.227497

Keywords:

Survey, Pesticides, Toxic treatments, Non-toxic treatments, Conservation

Abstract

Through a knowledge exchange network, many countries have developed similar timelines for using chemical substances to preserve collections in museums, libraries, and archives. To gather data on past treatment methods and current pest control practices, a survey was created. The goal was to identify the profile of toxic and non-toxic treatments used in various types of collections. The questionnaire was developed and applied to professionals working in cultural heritage preservation to identify both historical and current pest mitigation methods. The investigation aimed to determine if the traditional chemical treatments recommended by conservation manuals were widely adopted by professionals with different profiles and how current practices address pest-related issues in cultural heritage. This article presents and discusses the findings from this international survey.

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Author Biographies

  • Ana Carolina Delgado Vieira, Universidade de São Paulo. Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia

    Conservator at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE-USP), PhD candidate in the Nuclear Technology 
    Graduate Program at the Institute for Energy and Nuclear Research – IPEN/US

  • Pablo Antonio Vasquez Salvador, Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares, IPEN–CNEN/SP

    Graduação em Engenharia Química - Escola Politécnica (1999), mestrado em ciências pela Universidade de São Paulo (2004) e doutorado em ciências pela Universidade de São Paulo e pela Washington University in St. Louis (2009). Pesquisador do Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares IPEN. Professor e orientador em nível mestrado e doutorado do Programa de Pós-graduação em Tecnologia Nuclear da Universidade de São Paulo-USP. Responsável pela linha de pesquisa e aplicação da radiação ionizante para preservação de bens culturais. Consultor da Agência Internacional de Energia Atômica AIEA para preservação de Patrimônio Cultural utilizando radiação ionizante. Pesquisador responsável/coordenador do Irradiador Multipropósito de Cobalto-60 do Centro de Tecnologia das Radiações CETER/IPEN. Aplicação e estudos da radiação ionizante para modificação de propriedades físico-químicas de materiais. Experiência na área de Engenharia Química, com ênfase na aplicação de radioisótopos na indústria para controle de qualidade e otimização de processos: gamma scanning, traçadores radioativos, tomografia computadorizada, detectores cintiladores, sistemas de controle nucleônico.

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Published

2024-12-31

Issue

No. 43 (2024): Dossier Memory and oblivion in the Ancient World

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2024 Ana Carolina Delgado Vieira, Pablo Antonio Vasquez Salvador

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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How to Cite

DELGADO VIEIRA, Ana Carolina; VASQUEZ SALVADOR, Pablo Antonio. Past and present pest mitigation: insights from an international survey of practices. Revista do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, São Paulo, Brasil, n. 43, p. 114–128, 2024. DOI: 10.11606/issn.2448-1750.revmae.2024.227497. Disponível em: https://revistas.usp.br/revmae/article/view/227497.. Acesso em: 3 jan. 2026.