[BCMA] medicine/potions disposal?

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

One of our clients is the Museum of Healthcare in Kingston so I asked our contact there if she had any recommendations for you.  This is apparently is a fairly common question so she has provided the following information and a link to the Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society health and safety issues data sheet - https://www.rpharms.com/museum-pdfs/health-and-safety.pdf 

"The basic guidelines with handling, storing, displaying vintage pharmaceuticals: if the container is intact the contents are not hazardous. The closures must be secure and if not, use hot glue around the cork & glass top to create a seal. Hot glue can be easily removed, dried clear, and can handle environmental changes and removed if there is an issue with the contents.

Vintage medicine are a major portion of our collection, and we could be interested in the items if they are being deaccessioned. Forward images of the group and or list with images.

Good luck with your vintage pharmaceuticals!"

Kathy Karkut
Collections Manager
Museum of Health Care at Kingston
Ann Baillie Building National Historic Site
32 George Street    Kingston, Ontario K7L 2V7
Tel (613) 548-2419     karkutk at kgh.kari.net
www.museumofhealthcare.ca

Research our collection for object loans and image requests
                  http://mhc.andornot.com



You can check out the new search interface for the Museum of Healthcare Collection which we developed and host for them at http://mhc.andornot.com.  So many neat items!

Kathy

Kathy Bryce
Andornot Consulting Inc.
Email: kbryce at andornot.com
Tel:  604-269-2525 / 1-866-266-2525 x704
Website: www.andornot.com       Blog: www.andornot.com/blog      Twitter: twitter.com/andornot


From: bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca] On Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: Thursday, July 7, 2016 12:22 PM
To: bcma at lists.vifa.ca
Subject: [BCMA] medicine/potions disposal?

Hello,

The Cumberland Museum and Archives has 3 totes of liquid medicine from late 1800's to probably mid 1940's.  These include mercury, liquid nitrogen, lots of western medicine but also Chinese traditional medicine. like liquid tiger bone etc.  The medicine is stored in totes  and has been isolated from the rest of the collections, the items are very smelly and we are concerned. No one handles them. they will obviously not be exhibited. while the  bottles the medicine is stored in are very interesting we do not want to handle them or dump the contents out in order to keep the bottles as artifacts.  What should be done with this hazardous collection? Anyone have experience in this area?