Background Museums of Natural History serve community and science by paying serious attention to understanding biodiversity. Recently Dutch entomological collection from different institutes have been combined into one main collection. The collection preservation was based on moth-balls (naphthalene). Aim To establish risks for the occupational health of working with the entomological collection before and after moving and impriving the indoor air quality. Methods The indoor air quality of the old and new storage room was evaluated by analyzing air samples and measuring the ventilation rates. TenaxGR was used for the adsorption of VOCs and DNPH cartridges were used for the adsorption of volatile carbonyls. Additionally the wooden cabinets were subjected to a climate chamber emission test. Results The old repository contained over 800 cabinets with 10 drawers each (filled with 5-6 moth-balls). The highest concentration observed of naphthalene and formaldehyde indoor were subsequently 9300 and 169 μg/m3. The formaldehyde concentration exceeded the Dutch threshold limit value of 150 μg/m3. Chamber emission tests on the wooden cabinets indicated that they emit mainly formaldehyde. All moth-balls were removed and the collection was moved. Although the repository had air purification naphthalene and formaldehyde were present at high concentrations. Formaldehyde exceeded again the Dutch threshold limit value resulting in closing the storage rooms for workers. After evaluating the current purification system it was concluded that a wrong filter medium was applied. Additional tests showed that a combination of filters was able to reduce both the concentration naphthalene and formaldehyde. Conclusions Old preservation methods could have a high impact on working with collections due to the emission of harmful volatiles. In our case only improving the air purification the concentration of contaminants indoors could be reduced significantly.
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