I work for Amec Foster Wheeler (formerly AMEC) - if anyone wants to know
about the projects mentioned by Tim, contact me off list and I will figure
out who to contact.
Adrian Myers
*Adrian Myers*
[log in to unmask]
On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 11:57 AM, Timothy Scarlett <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> In the 1990s, the Marathon Battery site in Cold Spring New York was
> remediated under superfund. That led to full hazmat archaeology conducted
> by Grossman and Associates, Inc. George Meyers was part of that project and
> he reads HISTARCH regularly….
>
> I also know that AMEC has been doing a project up here in the copper
> country where the crew has been in Hazmat gear on a superfund site. They’ve
> been monitoring the cleanup of contaminated sediments at a powerplant site.
> I don’t know who one would contact at AMEC about the details, as this is a
> huge company…
>
> http://www.amecfw.com/services/environmental-services/our-services/cultural-resources
> <
> http://www.amecfw.com/services/environmental-services/our-services/cultural-resources
> >
>
> The HISTARCH community has discussed this several times since 1996. If you
> go to the archives, you can search for HAZMAT or SUPERFUND and see results:
> https://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa <https://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa>
>
> Misty-
> I think you’d do better to circulate that request for information among
> ACRA members on their forum: http://www.acra-crm.org/?page=ACRAForums <
> http://www.acra-crm.org/?page=ACRAForums>
> It would be very, very interesting to get comparative perspectives from
> members of the Shovelbum community: http://www.shovelbums.org/ <
> http://www.shovelbums.org/>
> (Actually, a study of these communities and hazmat/health-and-safety
> issues would be a brilliant MS Thesis project…)
>
> Cheers,
> Tim
>
>
> > On May 16, 2016, at 2:06 PM, William White <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > I’ve dug at some pretty nasty sites too. I wrote a blog post about
> digging at HazMat sites:
> http://www.succinctresearch.com/hazardous-materials-archaeology-sites/
> > I also wrote about how we can identify nasty chemicals in bottles. you
> can find it in the Winter 2011 SHA newsletter issue:
> >
> https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjL6q31ld_MAhUHxmMKHUkXC0IQFggdMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsha.org%2Fassets%2Fdocuments%2FWinter2011.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFi3gftJGwl-zKuHUU8wBAHH3m3pw
> >
> > The key to digging in HazMat sites is having a health and safety plan
> that covers the activities and kinds of potential hazards that may be
> encountered, and a plan for dealing with these incidents. We’ve all been
> inadvertently exposed but the problem is when we're exposed even though
> there was a high likelihood of nasty chemicals being present.
> > I missed how we got around to this topic but it reminded me of how
> important quality HASPs are to doing historical archaeology.
> > Bill White
> > PhD Candidate
> > University of Arizona
> >
> >
> >> Date: Mon, 16 May 2016 13:44:50 +0000
> >> From: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Re: Button or medallion??
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >>
> >> You might want to check with the Public Archaeology Lab about the
> Vermont Copper Mines Superfund site
> http://www.palinc.com/project-experience/vermont-copper-mines-superfund
> or work at Superfund sites in general
> http://www.palinc.com/services/crm-superfund-hazardous-waste-sites
> >> Yikes.
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Misty Jackson
> >> Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2016 2:08 PM
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Re: Button or medallion??
> >>
> >> Thanks for all the information, Tim. While we're on the subject, I am
> curious if anyone is aware of any sites where the crew was required to
> excavate in hazmat suits?
> >>
> >> Misty
> >>
> >>
> >> Misty Jackson, Ph.D., RPA
> >> Arbre Croche Cultural Resources,
> >> 214 South Main Street
> >> Leslie, Michigan 49251
> >> Center for Maritime and
> >> Underwater Resource Management
> >> www.cmurm.org
> >>
> >>
> >> On May 13, 2016, at 1:08 PM, Timothy Scarlett wrote:
> >>
> >>> My colleague and I wrote a bit about this in Harold Mytum's book on
> field schools, with an industrial archaeology/urban archaeology slant. In
> there we cite some USA, Canadian, and UK/EU resources, including the
> Poirier and Feder book (which is fantastic), but this topic is largely not
> published in archaeology literature. Health and Safety is mostly covered in
> the vast training resources to be found in the professional world, outside
> of academic publications.
> >>>
> >>> It is really important to me both personally and professionally that
> we talk with new professionals about these issues, because like Daniel,
> I've been afflicted with several of the things identified in Poirier and
> Feder's book which took (and take) a cost on my health. So I hope nobody
> thinks of this as self-promotion, but I'm sharing the relevant text of our
> chapter with two key footnotes:
> >>>
> >>> Scarlett, Timothy J., and Sweitz, Samuel (2012) Constructing New
> Knowledge in Industrial Archaeology. In Archaeological Field Schools:
> Constructing Knowledge and Experience, H. Mytum, editor, pp. 119-146.
> Springer, New York.
> >>> http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4614-0433-0_8 <
> http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-0433-0_8>
> >>>
> >>> 8.8 "Don't Trip on the Mining Machinery While Enjoying the Virgin
> Splendor of This Wilderness!" Or "...and Then the Test Trench Groundwater
> Dissolved the Styrofoam Coffee Cup!"
> >>>
> >>> IA also puts field school students at the center of cultural
> debates about industrial
> >>> production and environmental sustainability. Industrial heritage
> complicates often easy
> >>> alliances between heritage preservation and environmental restoration
> or open space
> >>> movements. These tensions are perfectly captured in The Michigan State
> >>> Historic Site marker along the road into the Porcupine Mountains State
> Park. The
> >>> marker reads in part, "Machinery, rock dumps, and old adits are
> ghostly reminders
> >>> of forty mining ventures in the years from 1846 to 1928.... Some
> logging took place
> >>> around 1916.... Finally in 1945 the area was made a state park to
> preserve its virgin
> >>> splendor." The students in our most recent field trip found this
> paradoxical marker
> >>> hysterical, as they trudged into the woods to see this virgin (that is
> unsullied,
> >>> unspoiled, modest, and initial) example of industry in the woods of
> far northern
> >>> Michigan.
> >>> Students usually come to our field school with a simplistic notion
> of "industry vs.
> >>> environment."......
> >>>
> >>> IA often brings research teams to "brownfields," "Superfund sites,"
> and
> >>> other degraded and contaminated landscapes that by no stretch of the
> imagination
> >>> can be considered "virgin," yet contain great potential to yield
> material evidence of
> >>> human industrial activity (Quivik 2000, 2007 ; Symonds 2004, 2006 ;
> White 2006 ) .
> >>> Many of these sites and landscapes pose serious threat to people's
> health. We tell
> >>> our students a story about IA and urban-sites archaeology in which the
> Styrofoam
> >>> cup serves as the punch line about the hazards of doing archaeology in
> urban and
> >>> industrial settings. In this archetypal story, a colleague working in
> the backhoe
> >>> trench began to develop a headache and noticed a funny smell. The crew
> chief
> >>> passed down an empty coffee cup for the person to scoop up a
> groundwater sample
> >>> that they could later have analyzed. In a matter of seconds, chemicals
> in the water
> >>> dissolved the Styrofoam cup. Everyone immediately scrambled out of the
> excavation
> >>> and work came to a halt as the team realized they were facing a
> potential medical
> >>> emergency.
> >>> Unfortunately, this story is neither allegorical nor is it
> exaggerated; rather this
> >>> cautionary tale and others like it serve to warn IA students away from
> a cavalier
> >>> "cowboys of science" mentality that can be found in both general
> archaeology and IA.
> >>> We think that English archaeologists led the way addressing health and
> safety concerns,
> >>> when the Council for British Archaeology published a pamphlet
> explaining
> >>> legally required safety requirements (Fowler 1972 ) . Through the
> 1990s in the United
> >>> States, a growing list of professional publications drew attention to
> the heath hazards
> >>> of both field- and museum-based studies involving archaeological
> (McCarthy 1994 ;
> >>> Flannigan 1995 ; Poirier and Feder 2001 ) , forensic (Fink 1996 ;
> Walsh-Haney et al.
> >>> 2008 ) , and ethnographic or natural history collections (Odegaard
> and Sadongei 2005 ) .
> >>> In the United States, the caviler archaeological mentality began to
> wane as professional
> >>> practice developed largely within the Society of Professional
> Archaeology,
> >>> particularly in their publication, the SOPA Newsletter (cf. Murdock
> 1992 ; Garrow
> >>> 1993 ; Fink and Engelthaler 1996 ) and Federal Archaeology (cf.
> Flannigan 1995 ) .
> >>> This trend culminated in the publication of Dangerous Places: Heath,
> Safety, and
> >>> Archaeology (Poirier and Feder 2001 ) . Safe and professional
> practices have begun to
> >>> percolate into introductory fi eld manuals to varying degrees. 8
> >>> All archaeology conveys risks to health and safety: confined spaces
> excavation,
> >>> pathogens and occupational diseases, unstable historic architecture,
> temperature
> >>> stress, sharp tools, toxic plants and venomous animals, and even the
> crew's social
> >>> practices are all concerns (Langley and Abbott 2000 ) . By its very
> nature, however,
> >>> IA will more often bring professional, student, and avocational
> practitioners into
> >>> contact with hazardous threats. One half of Dangerous Places examines
> hazards
> >>> posed by colonial and industrial activity (of particular note are
> Hatheway 2001 ;
> >>> Roberts 2001 ; Saunders and Chandler 2001 ; Reno et al. 2001 ) .
> Industrial processes
> >>> like tanning leather, making paper, dyeing textile, extracting metals
> for ore, and
> >>> founding steel all involve chemicals like amyl acetate, sulfuric and
> other acids,
> >>> hydrogen chloride, benzene, naptha phenol, toluene, and elements such
> as lead,
> >>> arsenic, mercury, chlorine, and chromium. We deal with so much rusted
> iron that we
> >>> strongly recommend TETANUS vaccinations for all team members and we
> occasionally
> >>> had discussions about unexploded ordinance (UXO) while at the West
> >>> Point Foundry; fortunately however, we have not lead a field crew into
> a highly
> >>> contaminated site. Team leaders should research and anticipate health
> and safety
> >>> risks posed by each new project. This should be part of their
> preparations for the
> >>> study, often in collaboration with environmental scientists and public
> health professionals.
> >>> Many government health services and NGOs also provide ready access to
> >>> information about occupational health. 9
> >>> As a department, we created the Ph.D. in Industrial Heritage and
> Archaeology, in
> >>> part, to establish closer ties between the academic study of
> industrial heritage sites
> >>> and social and environmental consequences of industrial wealth
> production.
> >>> Industrial activities transformed (and continue to transform) the
> world as never
> >>> before in the human experience. While our students might study a
> particular industrial
> >>> site or community, they also face the living community's struggles
> with the
> >>> consequences of producing industrial wealth in a capitalist world.
> Heritage preservation
> >>> seems to be a great idea, and archaeological heritage easily links
> with intangible
> >>> cultural heritage and environmental heritage conservation, until effl
> uent from
> >>> a heritage site is linked to cancer in children living downstream.
> Those same youngsters,
> >>> however, live as part of an industrial community with rich and
> textured relations
> >>> to their heritage sites and landscapes, as does any other stakeholder
> group or
> >>> decent community with any other type of heritage. "Hard places" and
> landscapes, as
> >>> Robertson ( 2006 ) wrote, often become enduring expressions of shared
> physical
> >>> work, risk, and sacrifi ce that are important to family and community.
> >>> Individual students on Michigan Tech's IA Field Teams are forced,
> along with the
> >>> project as a collective, to reconcile the fact that academic research
> is performed in
> >>> the contemporary world. Creating new knowledge includes social and
> political outcomes
> >>> beyond academic research questions. Students are shocked to fi nd that
> some
> >>> community stakeholders see them as neocolonial tools of the wealthy,
> urban, and
> >>> educated elite that employ environmental or historic preservation laws
> to preserve
> >>> quaint, picturesque landscapes for vacation, while other community
> members are
> >>> happily bending the fi eld school process to meet their own private
> political or social
> >>> objectives. The subtleties and complexities of these social
> negotiations are normal
> >>> in IA, and projects must often struggle to reconcile advocacy for
> environment and
> >>> advocacy for various descendent-, local-, and other stakeholder
> communities
> >>> (McGuire with the Ludlow Collective 2008 : 216-217).
> >>>
> >>> 8 Typical examples of health and safety concerns addressed in these
> books include brief mentions
> >>> of regulations regarding excavations in deep trenches (Black and Jolly
> 2003 :61, 64-65; Carmichael
> >>> et al. 2003 :52; Purdy 1996 :96); recommendation to get a tetanus
> booster and pay up on your insurance
> >>> policy (McMillon 1991 ) ; a discussion of disease risk and prevention,
> proper tool use, hygiene,
> >>> and a paragraph about deep trenches, Occupational Safety and Health
> Administration (OSHA)
> >>> standards, state safety checklists, and legal liability waiver forms
> (Hester et al. 1997 :110-112);
> >>> discussions of employee safety training, regulations and shoring
> regarding deep excavations, cold
> >>> temperatures, and working in the woods during hunting season (Neumann
> and Sanford 2001 :68,
> >>> 160-161, 186-189); and emergency fi rst aid and strategies for dealing
> with disaster (Kipfer
> >>> 2007 :171-179, 193, 212). British and Australian archaeologists have
> done a much better job
> >>> including careful discussions of safety and health issues, and we
> point to Roskams's ( 2001 :82-92)
> >>> extensive discussion of issues in a dedicated section of his manual,
> but also point to the fact that
> >>> he has also made themes of safe and careful professional practice a
> regular part of the narrative
> >>> throughout the book. Heather Burke and Claire Smith, along with Larry
> Zimmerman, also included
> >>> extensive discussion about health and safety issues in their fi eld
> handbooks (Burke and Smith
> >>> 2004 ; Burke Smith and Zimmerman 2007 :134, 194-196; Smith and Burke
> 2007 :96-108, 117-
> >>> 123). This last set of books also hints that fi eld manuals with
> discussions of Industrial Archaeology
> >>> and Urban Archaeology among the spectrum of archaeological practice
> give more serious thought
> >>> to health and safety policy and practice (along with those directed
> toward students seeking to
> >>> become Cultural Resources Management professionals).
> >>>
> >>> 9 Examples of these resources include The United States Department of
> Labor's OSHA publication
> >>> of standards and guidelines for excavation as well as standardized
> format guidelines for Material
> >>> Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for chemicals. The MSDS format includes
> information on handling and
> >>> storage, toxicity, fi re risk, and fi rst aid procedures and has been
> widely adopted by other government
> >>> and NGO groups, such as the provincial health services of Canada (
> http://msds.ohsah.bc.ca/ ).
> >>> The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) and the
> European Chemicals
> >>> Agency (ECHA) compiled the standards and practices of member states,
> including details like the
> >>> Globally Harmonized System for the Classifi cation and Labeling of
> Chemicals (GHS).
> >>>
> >>>> On May 13, 2016, at 12:39 PM, Davis, Daniel (KYTC) <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> There's a 2001 book called "Dangerous Places: Health, Safety, and
> Archaeology", which was edited by David Poirier and Kenneth L. Feder and
> published by Bergin and Garvey. It includes chapters on Lyme disease,
> rabies, Valley Fever, hantavirus, histoplasmosis, mold, smallpox,
> parasites, arsenic, hazmat, unexploded ordnance, and lead. It doesn't cover
> skin cancer, bad knees or backs, snake or spider bites, bee stings, angry
> dogs, suspicious/armed land owners, bulls, bears, boars, falling trees,
> lightning, or tornadoes, but hey, those go without saying, right? Or maybe
> those things just happen to me - in which case, anyone know how to break a
> curse?
> >>>>
> >>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Linda Derry
> >>>> Sent: Friday, May 13, 2016 9:40 AM
> >>>> To: [log in to unmask]
> >>>> Subject: Re: Button or medallion??
> >>>>
> >>>> Is there a report on occupational diseases linked to a career in
> archaeology? I remember talk of a desert fever back in the 80's and a
> colleague recently suggested a lifetime in the sun leads to cataracts, and
> I always assumed there would be bad knees or backs as we aged and perhaps a
> >>>> high rate of skin cancer, but is any of this true? And how about
> higher
> >>>> rates of Lyme disease?
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Linda Derry
> >>>> Site Director, Old Cahawba Archaeological Park Alabama Historical
> Commission
> >>>> 9518 Cahaba Road, Orrville, AL 36767
> >>>> park: 334/ 872-8058
> >>>> [log in to unmask]
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 7:28 AM, Keith Doms <
> [log in to unmask]>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> It is an English button missing its shankLate 18th early 19th
> century.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Keith R. Doms
> >>>>> Newlin Grist Mill
> >>>>> Site Manager
> >>>>> 219 S. Cheyney Rd.
> >>>>> Glen Mills, PA 19342
> >>>>> (610) 459-2359
> >>>>> [log in to unmask]
> >>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> >>>>> Linda Hylkema
> >>>>> Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2016 1:07 PM
> >>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
> >>>>> Subject: Button or medallion??
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Hello,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I have a very small 'flat button' with the words 'superior warranted'
> >>>>> on one side. I'm assuming it is a British button, but I've also seen
> >>>>> medallions for saws with the same words. Based on the size (slightly
> >>>>> bigger than 1cm in diameter), I'm assuming that is is a button. Can
> >>>>> anyone confirm what this is?
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> http://s1172.photobucket.com/user/Linda_Hylkema/library/warranted%20su
> >>>>> perior%20button
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Thanks in advance!!
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Linda
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Linda Hylkema, RPA
> >>>>> *Director, Cultural Resource Management, Santa Clara University*
> >>>>> W: *408-554-4513 <408-554-4513>* | C: *408-219-5748 <408-219-5748>* |
> >>>>> Ricard Observatory | 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053
> >>>>>
> >>>
> >
>
|
