Comments on: A lost treasure from New York's attic

A lost treasure from New York's attic

ryanshepard — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 14:59:14 -0800

A long-lost treasure too toxic to touch: Construction at New York City's Harlem Community Justice Center recently revealed a room piled high with records documenting the building's former life as an early 20th century prison. They offer a peek into the street life of ca. 1900 NYC and scholars are already interested - there's only one problem: the room also contains decades worth of toxic pigeon droppings. (NY Times - registration required). Photos (click on the "records rescue" link at the bottom) of the room are available at the great correctionhistory.org which also offers histories and photos of other out-of-the-way corners of NYC like the Hart Island Potter's Field.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 15:20:54 -0800

Can someone explain why these are "too toxic to touch"? Gross, yes. Toxic? There's something I obviously don't know.

By: Grod

Grod — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 15:43:23 -0800

Histoplasmosis, among other respiratory ailments can be spread via pigeon droppigs. Shit, in general, harbors all sorts of bacteria and fungus many of which are toxic.

By: nakedcodemonkey

nakedcodemonkey — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 15:44:29 -0800

Mainly fungal diseases [PDF] though they're also "known to harbor a variety of diseases and parasites possibly including e-coli.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 15:46:45 -0800

Thanks. That's what I suspected, but I would've thought that a pathogen would be not-too-hard to get rid off. I mean, relative to some toxin.

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 15:47:43 -0800

etheral: guess this explains a lot

By: davebug

davebug — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 16:19:33 -0800

Heat the whole thing up, oven-cleaner style. It'll be sterile, at least.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 16:38:25 -0800

Yeah, there are ways you can kill pathogens, but you actually have to get rid of toxic compounds. All I've seen are that pigeon droppings harbor lots of pathogens. So you'd think they could use some serious antiseptics or something and that'd be good enough. It wouldn't clean the shit up, but it'd kill the bugs. Well, virii can be very hard to kill. And heating it up in an oven, even in the absence of oxygen, is probably not very healthy for old documents. :)

By: reality

reality — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 20:57:08 -0800

What's with all the New York postings today? Anyway, maybe it's toxic because what they eat around here. I've seen my share of deformed pigeons stumbling around Tomkins Square... But there's all kinds of buried past in this gothic place

By: rxrfrx

rxrfrx — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 13:57:50 -0800

About the droppings: Something I didn't see mentioned in elpapacito's link is that bird urine, unlike that of most mammals, contains a lot of ammonia (birds' preferred disposal method of extra nitrogen from digested proteins). This ammonia, when freed, gets up into the air and makes it impossible to enter caves or other closed areas high in droppings unless one is wearing a respirator.