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SCIENCEof Scrapbooking

Preservation Q&ABY DANIEL BURGE

IN REALITY, THE TERMS ACID-FREE AND

photo-safe are not synonymous. Acid-freedoesn’t necessarily mean that the productis any safer for photos than another thatis slightly acidic. Surprised? In fact, someof the manufacturers of these productscan’t even tell you what causes a photo tofade or yellow over time. So how do youknow if a manufacturer knows how tomake a product that doesn’t harm photosor even understands what causes photos tofail? How can they prove it to you?

F I R S T, W H AT C A U S E S A P H OTO G R A P H TO FA I L OV E R T H E L O N G - T E R M ?

This doesn’t include those things thatcause harm over the short term like fire,

flood, or mishandling. The three primarydeterioration forces for photos are heat,moisture and pollution. You probablynoticed that scrapbook products were notincluded on the list. Actually they were, aspollution. Don’t get angry because I’m

comparing some scrapbook materials tosmog. The reality is that smog and somescrapbook products can harm photos inexactly the same way. First, let’s discussheat. The amount of heat a scrapbook isexposed to is measured as temperature.Increases in temperature increase the ratesat which scrapbooks and photos deterio-rate. Scrapbook products cannot reducethe amount of heat that the photos insidethe album are exposed to. The only wayto control the effects of heat is to lower thetemperature of the storage environment.

Moisture in the air is the second causeof photo deterioration and is measuredas humidity or relative humidity. It canaccelerate the reactions caused by heatand pollution, or it can cause the gelatinlayer on photos to become gooey andstick to other photos, page protectors, orthe glass in frames. Scrapbook productscan do little to reduce the amount ofmoisture or heat reaching the photosinside. The only way to control the effectsof moisture is to lower the humidity ofthe storage environment.

The last big cause of photo deteriora-tion is pollution. Pollution comes fromboth the air (smog, etc.) and potentiallyfrom some scrapbook materials we use.A well-known producer of scrapbookpollution is lignin in paper and paper-board. This is why you often see the term

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Q : H OW D O M A N U FAC T U R E R S D E T E R M I N E I F S O M E -

T H I N G I S P H OTO - S A F E ?

A: I often see the words photo-safe on packages of scrapbook products and

wonder to myself,“Exactly what do they mean by that?” For museums and

archives the term photo-safe usually means that a product has met a spe-

cific set of standards for composition and/or performance indicating its

long-term inertness with photographic materials.With scrapbook products

there is no clear indication that these sorts of composition and/or per-

formance standards have been applied. In fact, in many cases it appears

that the term photo-safe is nothing more than a hope on the part of the

manufacturer. I suspect, and maybe you do to, that many companies rely on

the myth that if a product is acid-free then it must be photo-safe.

The terms acid-free and photo-safe are not synonymous.Acid-free doesn’tnecessarily mean that the product is any safer for photos than another.

The last big cause ofphoto deterioration ispollution.A well-knownproducer of scrapbookpollution is lignin inpaper and paperboard.

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lignin-free on packages (but lignin-freeisn’t synonymous with acid-free or photo-safe). Lignin itself can’t jump out of paperand hurt a photograph, but over time itnaturally breaks down into acids and oxi-dizing, reducing, and discoloring agents. Itis these four things that harm our photos.Incidentally, smog contains these samefour types of pollution. Besides paper,scrapbook pollutants can come from avariety of other products: adhesives, plas-tics, inks, and embellishments.

H OW D O W E M A K E S C R A P -B O O K P R O D U C T S T H ATWO N ’ T H A R M P H OTO S ?

It seems sensible that to make a productthat isn’t harmful to photos over time,all a company has to do is make sure theproduct doesn’t emit pollutants. How-ever, given the complexity of productchemistries and the various needs formanufacturing, it isn’t always so easy. Itis also unknown whether there must beabsolutely none of these pollutants or ifthere are allowable levels that won’t com-promise photo-safety and even improveproduct performance in other ways. Thisis where having a way to show photo-safety through testing may help.

Currently, the best way I know todemonstrate that a material won’t harmphotos is through the use of standardizedtest methods that can monitor productperformance and/or composition. An

example of a standard test method is theTechnical Association of the Pulp andPaper Industry’s (TAPPI) T 509 Hydrogenion concentration (pH) of paper extracts(cold extraction method). This is one ofthe standard tests in the paper industry todetermine paper pH (acidity). Some verylarge companies have their own internaltesting departments. Their professionalstaffs could potentially look at variousproduct performance and compositionissues such as pH, but usually their workis directed at initial product performance(how well does this pen write) and storeshelf life (how soon will this glue need tobe sold). Some of these companies mayoccasionally look at the long-term stabil-ity of their products, but the reality is thatmany of the large companies and most ofthe smaller companies have little scientificevidence to establish their products arelong-lasting or safe for photos.

The standards that exist have slowlybeen gaining momentum among manufac-turers and sellers of scrapbook products.Here are the International Organizationfor Standardization (ISO) standards forimaging materials and photographicmaterials. ISO 18902 is entitled Imaging

Materials-processed photographi films,

plates, and papers; Filing enclosures and

storage containers. ISO 14523 is entitledPhotography: Processed Photographic

Materials-photographic activity test for

enclosure materials.

H E R E A R E A F E W P O I N T STO R E M E M B E R R E G A R D I N GP H OTO S A F E T Y:

� When purchasing raw materials tomake your products or when pur-chasing manufactured items to sell inyour store, make sure supplier claimsof photo-safety can be backed upwith test results.

� Don’t allow manufacturers or sell-ers to convince you that they don’tneed to do the appropriate testingbecause they already have a longhistory of making quality products.

� Don’t let manufacturers or sellersconvince you that because theirproducts are not meant to be indirect contact with a photo (likebox materials) that they don’t needto be tested.That isn’t true.

� Don’t assume acid-free meanslignin-free or that either of theseterms means photo-safe.

� Don’t assume that if something isphoto-safe it is generally scrapbook-safe. Products that are safe for photosmay still interact or fail in other wayslike adhesives turning paper yellow orjournaling inks fading away.

No scrapbook products can save your photosfrom a poor storage environment.

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Both standards use the term enclosure(s)in their titles. This is what professionalconservators would call scrapbooking mat-erials because these products “enclose”photos (they would not include decorativeelements like stickers and other embellish-ments). The ISO 18902 document can bevery helpful in its description of the variousmaterials used for photo storage, and itgives many tips for product compositions.For example, it recommends using poly-propylene, polyethylene, and polyesterplastics in favor of PVC’s. It also has rec-ommendations for pH levels in papers.Unfortunately for you, it was written forinstitutional application and often doesn’t

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Pollution and humidity can cause irreversible dam-age to original photos or scrapbook pages overtime. Selling materials that have passed standard-ized testing methods goes a long way towardpreserving important photos and documents.

Daniel Burge is a Research Scientist at the Image Permanence Institute at the RochesterInstitute of Technology. He has been investigating the potentially harmful interactions betweenphoto storage products and photographs for the last 12 years. He is also active as a member and educator in the Scrapbook Preservation Society.

translate well to the needs of the scrap-booker at home. It requires all adhesives tobe reversible, which, in our craft, we don’talways do. Also there is no helpful infor-mation regarding any of the decorativeembellishments you put on your pages.

The ISO 14523 document describesthe Photographic Activity Test, commonlyreferred to as the PAT. This test can specif-ically screen products for the oxidation,reduction, and discoloration reactionscaused by scrapbook pollutants. Basically,the test artificially ages scrapbook prod-ucts in contact with special detectors thatrepresent photographs and then usesmeasured changes to determine if thosescrapbook products are safe or not. The re-sult is a simple pass or fail rating. Becausethe PAT doesn’t tell you anything about theproduct’s acidity level or lignin-content, pHand lignin content should also be indicated.

No scrapbook products can save yourphotos from a poor storage environment.If it’s hot and humid where your photosare stored, you could be shortening thelifespan of your photos by half or more.Keep them cool and dry!

Opposite Page and Left: All three of these photos display the effects of water damage.

Above: Various pollutants can yield odd results, as seen in this red-tinted photo.

Bottom: Mold, caused by poor storage conditions, canaffect photos and scrapbook pages themselves.