After 1 (H)h reaction with CI-resin and 300h reaction with HCO3-resin (approaching equilibrium). the concentration of anions complementary to phosphate was the critical variable affecting the transfer of P from soil to resin. Solution ccmcentrations of H30+, ca?+ and phosphate indicated that desorption of P by OH-, and dissolution of Ca phosphates, controlled P release from soils. P extracted by HC03-resin was much greater than by CI-resin from an acid soil. due to lower total anion and higher desorbing anion concentrations. but there was little difference between the two resins with a calcareous soil. HCO-resin extracted a constant proportion of isotopically-exchangeable P from different soils whereas CI-resin did not. Anion exchange resins provide a convenient means for producing P desorption curves for soils. introduc lion A N I O N -E X C H A N G E resins are frequently used to extract plant-available phosphate from soils (Amer et al., 1955; Cooke and Hislop, 1963). The resin method gives better correlation with P uptake by plants than other methods using single extractants (Gunary and Sutton, 1967; Bache and Rogers, 1970; Metwally et al., 1975; Kadeba and Boyle, 1978) presumably because it simulates the desorbing effect of plant roots better than the usual chemical extractants. Desorption from soil occurs as a result of the low P concentration that the resin maintains in solution, and Barrow and Shaw (1977) concluded that this concentration governs the P desorbed in a given time. Vaidyanathan and Talibudeen (1970) suggested that the rate of P transfer to the resin was controlled by diffusion within resin particles rather than by chemical reactions between soil and solution, whereas Sibbesen (1978) concluded that P desorption from soil to water was the rate-determining step.We report here P adsorbed by the resin as a function of time, resin concentration, salt concentration and the desorbing anion, and also the pH and concentrations of Ca and P in the soil-resin-solution system. The results provide further information on mechanisms of P release from soil by resins.

Mr Straw’s House inWorksop, Nottinghamshire, is a time capsule of social\ud history, housing a wide ranging collection of personal ephemera and everyday\ud items dating from the 1900s to the1980s. Now cared for by the National\ud Trust, the house’s historical importance lies in its exhibition of this wide\ud range of everyday items. It displays the family’s middle-class possessions,\ud and gives a sense of the modernisation and development of household\ud brands. However some of these historical everyday items may pose\ud health risks to staff and visitors, and particular concern was raised about\ud the chemical containers present at the property. While pesticides added\ud to objects have been discussed in some detail in previous studies, very\ud little information is available about what factors to consider when treating\ud objects where the hazardous chemicals are an integral part of the object’s\ud use and history. Therefore a project involving the National Trust and the\ud University of Lincoln’s Conservation Department was undertaken to identify\ud and conserve the contents and containers of the collection from Mr\ud Straw’s House. This article discusses the analyses of the contents and\ud how these were then treated