Heavy metal contamination of archived historical documents and employees

Abstract

In this study we aimed to predict the heavy metal contamination in the 100 500 years old archived papers and also to detect any toxic metals in fingernails of employees who work in this place. Fifteen document samples were compared to recently produced paper, and 5 fingernail samples of employees were compared to a control group that consisted of 16 volunteers by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The study showed that, in paper and fingernail samples, some elements such as Li, B, Al, Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Sn and Pb were significantly higher than control samples (p < 0.05). Repeated preservation processes by chemical preservatives including heavy metals in the past are the possible reason for this contamination as well as dust.