Dear Graham Price,
My apology for not getting back to you earlier but I was called away shortly
after sending my email to the list.
I have attached below a response from Vince Russell, Somerset County
Archaeologist, to the same questions I posed on Mining History List and the
British Archaeology List. I think this may offer a fuller explanation.
Some very useful information in response to my enquiries can be obtained
from the Britarch site - July mailings at:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A1=ind0507&L=britarch
Vince here.
Glad to be back on the ol' list at last.
The heavy metal contamination at Charterhouse was largely lead, arsenic,
cadmium and zinc, with the levels of both lead and arsenic reaching official
'heavy contamination' levels at which mandatory PPE and showering when
removed from site kick in. We had PPE from day 1, of course, although no-one
explained about what happened to the people who normally kick over molehills
in the field and pick up pottery....:-)
It shouldn't have been a great surprise, of course, as we were expecting to
look at metal smelting areas, and we did at least get sufficient readings
with the hand held XRF device to understand what we were seeing in the
uppermost layer of the archaeology. It was heartbreaking for my volunteers
from CHERT (CHarterhouse Environs Research Team, a community
archaeology project who have been working on the area for nearly 4 years),
who did all the hard work of turfing and topsoiling and then got pulled off
the site just as the archaeology was looking interesting. Ah well. The
decision was, of course, the right one, and we couldn't take any chances
with the H&S. On the whole, the effort was worth it: we got good
geophysics - no, we got blinding geophysics - and the heavy metal analyses
were useful in themselves.
Vince Russett
County Archaeologist
01275-888523
Member, CHarterhouse Environs Research Team
Member, Bleadon and Lympsham Environs Research Team
Member, Yatton Cleeve and Claverham Archaeological Research Team
Member, Detecting Archaeologists Research Team
Member, Nailsea Environmental and Archaeological Team
Member, WInscombe and Sandford Environs Researchers
Member, CLevedon Environs Archaeological Team
----- Original Message -----
From: "Graham Price" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 1:00 PM
Subject: Re: Heavy Metal Contaminants
> Dear Trevor,
>
> I haven't seen any other postings on this.
> Some explanation / elaboration would be very useful.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Graham Price
>
>
> :::-----Original Message-----
> :::From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> :::On Behalf Of Trevor Dunkerley
> :::Sent: 06 July 2005 09:22
> :::To: [log in to unmask]
> :::Subject: Re: [MINING-HISTORY] Heavy Metal Contaminants
> :::
> :::Dear List,
> :::
> :::I was interested to note the closure of the Time Team
> :::excavation at Charterhouse, Mendip due to the above.
> :::
> :::This action raises several important questions in relation
> :::to those archaeologists engaged in field work in past
> :::industrial settings.
> :::
> :::What, for example, with regard to Health & Safety at Work,
> :::are the types of contaminants considered to be unsafe, and
> :::what are acceptable and unacceptable levels to work with?
> :::What methods are available to determine the types of
> :::contaminants, and the levels of contamination quickly?
> :::
> :::Kindest regards,
> :::
> :::Trevor
> :::
> :::
>
>
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