Relationship between the biohazard in Cuban archives and libraries and the occurrence of disasters
Keywords:
biohazard, fungi, disasters, archive, biosafety, healthAbstract
Archives and libraries contain environmental microorganisms, in particular fungi, that are typically found in the air, associated with dust, and on preserved documents surfaces. Under appropriate conservation conditions these fungi are inactive and cannot damage documents, but they can affect the health of workers because they are constantly inhaled. For this reason, personnel in these institutions are exposed to biohazard circumstantially or involuntarily. The objective of this work is to explain how this biohazard is accentuated when disasters occur, whether small or large, related to intense vibrations or the presence of water in materials, which leads to a significant increase in the environmental fungal load. An exhaustive search was carried out in Internet, principally in publications indexed in databases, and no reference was found that relates biohazard in archives and libraries to disasters. Results previously obtained in our researches indicate that with adequate Biosafety measures and procedures as well as appropriate Preventive Conservation, Integrated Pest Management and Disaster Risk Reduction Plans, this problem can be mitigated.
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