With all due respect, your average movie theater's projection booth back in the day was hardly a pristine, clean, dust free environment either! And I saw no evidence he damaged the prints.
The AFI, BFI, and the Library of Congress all hold archival prints.
Unless one of us has a 35mm telecine in their basement, (or $40k to spend on one) there isn't a whole lot anyone could do with such prints anyway...