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Arsenic exposure on University of Alaska Anchorage campus leads to removal of taxidermy collection

Documents reveal that two employees developed neurological symptoms after exposure to arsenic, mercury, and lead on a contaminated taxidermy collection at the ARLIS library on the UAA campus in 2022

Taxidermy of a hoofed mammal currently on display at ARLIS — not available for checkout. Photo by Murat Demir.

For two decades, the ARLIS library checked out taxidermy pieces to the public, only to later discover they contained arsenic, mercury and lead. Following the discovery, the taxidermy collection was removed with no public explanation. 

The Northern Light filed Freedom of Information Act requests with UAA and several government agencies associated with ARLIS in search of answers.

ARLIS is a federal and state library located in the UAA Consortium Library. It had gained media attention for the circulation of its Furs, Mounts, & Skulls taxidermy collection. 

Documents revealed that in 2022, two staff members — a UAA employee and an employee from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game — reported nausea and neurological symptoms while working with the collection.

In September 2022, now-former UAA risk management Director Tim Edwards sent a series of emails notifying various parties about the incident.

In an email to R&M Consultants Inc., an industrial consulting firm, Edwards inquired if the company tests for arsenic. He wrote, “We have a large collection and they send these out to schools for educational purposes,” referring to the taxidermy. 

He wrote that the two exposed workers noticed their symptoms subsided after working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the symptoms “showed back up” when they returned.

According to an email from Edwards to several UA staff members, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game suspended all operations with taxidermy mounts across the state after Edwards informed them about the incident.

Edwards emailed Ryan Buchholdt, vice chancellor for administrative services at UAA, about the incident. 

Edwards wrote that in February 2022, ARLIS Director Brandy Watts informed him that an employee was experiencing symptoms and hypothesized they were caused by off-gassing from residual chemicals on the taxidermy from a moth treatment in 2005.

However, Edwards wrote, after investigating the employees' day-to-day activities, he deduced that the symptoms were not caused by treatment chemicals but instead hypothesized that arsenic exposure from old taxidermy mounts could be the cause.

Edwards wrote to Buchholdt, “I learned there was a back room part of their operation that has an extensive collection of smaller animals all in a taxidermy state. Birds, Mammals, furs etc...What they do is take requests from school and or homeschool parents around the state and if approved they pack up the Birds for example into a glass box and they essentially loan the bird to them for a period of time for educational purposes.”

Edwards wrote that he and Watts decided to suspend work in the affected storage area, recalled loaned out pieces of the collection, and made arrangements to test the taxidermy for chemicals.

“this has the potential to shut that portion of the program down if the tests come back positive, we most likely will have to test every item to know for sure which Brandy (Watts) indicated they will probably do, they don't want to be liable for sending Arsenic containing items to schools,” wrote Edwards.

Buchholdt responded to Edwards' email and wrote, “Tim, A lot to digest here.”

In October 2022, Watts wrote an email to Department of Fish and Game Project WILD coordinator, Brenda Duty, writing, “where the concern lies is that arsenic was found on the majority of items tested as well as in the dust on one of the carts. It is likely the collection has arsenic contaminated dust throughout.”

UAA Environmental Health & Safety, Risk Management — or UAA EHS — received the test results from R&M Consulting which revealed the presence of arsenic, mercury and lead in the Furs, Mounts and Skulls collection.

UAA EHS removed the collection from ARLIS in June 2023, according to previous reporting by The Northern Light. 

UAA EHS offered to dispose of the items in the collection that contained arsenic, while the other items were planned to be transported to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game warehouse in Anchorage, Alaska Department of Fish & Game education and outreach coordinator Sierra Doherty wrote in an email to other staff from the agency.

The Northern Light filed FOIA requests and obtained documents about the incident at the end of 2024. 

The two employees who became ill were contacted for interviews, but they declined to make statements.

The Northern Light interviewed UAA Chancellor Sean Parnell outside of his office about the incident. Parnell said, “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

The Northern Light also emailed Vice Chancellor Buchholdt questions about the university’s decision not to disclose the presence of hazardous chemicals in the collection — despite the collection’s availability to the public.

Buchholdt wrote that the university makes campus-wide notifications only when the broader campus community is impacted. 

“In this instance, the exposure risk was limited only to the employees handling the materials long term,” he wrote.

The test results provided by R&M Consultants did not analyze the impact of the results on human health. According to the results, “no interpretation of results relative to human health or the environment are provided.”

When asked how the university determined that no other UAA community members were affected, Buchholdt wrote, “The materials in question were kept in a storage room not accessible to the public.”

According to a document on the ARLIS website from 2017, ARLIS began circulating the collection to the public in May 1998. Initially, the items were checked out using garbage bags. Eventually, some items, such as bird mounts, were checked out in locked acrylic boxes, while furs were circulated in Rubbermaid containers.

A sign hangs near the entrance to ARLIS. Photo by Murat Demir.

The document states that “Patrons often express a wish to see the collection as a whole to bask in all their choices,” and mentions “repeat borrowers” of the items within the collection. The storage room where the taxidermy was once held was called the “Patron Selection Room” until ARLIS limited public access in 2014 after patrons browsing the collection became disruptive to employees.

In a follow-up email, The Northern Light asked Bucholdt about the public’s access to the materials.

Buchholdt wrote, ”I don't know the check out process used by ARLIS or the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.”

“At this point you have all of the information we are able to provide,” he wrote.

To obtain an independent interpretation of the test data conducted on the Furs, Mounts, and Skulls collection, The Northern Light reached out to Dr. Paloma Beamer, a professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of Arizona.

Beamer said, “Certainly some of the concentrations are very high. For example, the male loon is about 6.7% lead.”

She said, “To understand the implications for exposure you would want to understand how people are interacting with these samples and specimens and how often.”

“Dose makes the poison,” said Beamer.

Dylan Jones is a Community Science Coordinator at Alaska Community Action on Toxics. 

In an email to The Northern Light, he wrote that the heavy metals found in the tests are known to be associated with harmful effects on human health including neurodevelopmental harm and carcinogenicity.

“They are known to migrate from specimens and accumulate in dust in facilities where specimens are stored,” wrote Jones.

Jones wrote that mercury can volatilize from specimens and contaminate the air, and contaminated air and dust can easily enter human bodies when inhaled or ingested.

“Given the health risks posed to users of the UAA library and ARLIS space, it is important that the area where taxidermy specimens were stored be tested and if necessary remediated by certified and accredited hazmat professionals,” wrote Jones.

The room holding the collection at ARLIS was scheduled to have its shelves and carpet cleaned by a contractor on April 14, 2023, according to emails between Watts and a UAA custodial inspector. 

The Northern Light editors Matthew Schmitz and Hannah Dillon contributed to this report.