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
> :::
> :::
>
>