A New Canadian Standard for Permanent Paper

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CCI Newsletter, No. 24, November 1999

A New Canadian Standard for Permanent Paper

by David Grattan, Manager, Conservation Processes and Materials Research

The speaker was in earnest... the atmosphere tense... and those surrounding the table fatigued. They had been at it for many hours in this, the culminating meeting of the Canadian General Standards Board Sub-Committee on the Permanency of Paper. At last there was agreement. In a historic moment, the eleventh draft of the proposed Canadian Standard for Permanent Paper was on the table. The end product of several years of scientific research, study, and discussion was now in black-and-white. But what now... what would be the outcome?

Initially, the aim of the research project had been to examine the role of lignin in determining the permanence of paper; it was sponsored by a group of Canadian pulp producers and various government agencies, and undertaken jointly by CCI and the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada. CCI's principal responsibilities in the project were to age the test papers and analyse their degradation using the Cadoxen DP method. The study looked at a number of modern papers containing a wide range of fibre types, and was the largest and most comprehensive of its type undertaken to date. The results have now been released in report format and are also published in Restaurator.^1,2 The conclusion is that the fibre composition of paper is of minimal consequence to its permanence as long as the paper is buffered with at least 2% calcium carbonate. This result is scientifically very significant in that it allows paper containing lignin to be included in those classed as 'permanent'.

Much of the groundwork for the study was laid by two former employees of CCI: the late Dr. Klaus Hendriks, who established what must be one of the world's best-equipped laboratories for studying the aging of paper (in CCI's Tunney's Pasture facility in Ottawa); and the late Ms. Helen Burgess, well known for her studies on conservation bleaching and mass deacidification of paper, who introduced the Cadoxen DP method for measuring the degradation of paper.

The new standard is not only the first to accept that lignin-containing paper could be 'permanent', but also the first to broach the difficult issue of 'optical permanence'. In some instances a small change in colour can be acceptable (nobody really minds if the paper in a report or a paperback book becomes a little yellow, as long as the informational value and the ability to reproduce it are unaffected). However, in other situations the yellowing of paper will compromise its value. In such cases, the recommendation continues to be that only lignin-free paper be used.

It remains to be seen whether or not the new standard will be adopted (the final vote has yet to be taken). However, if accepted it is likely to have a profound impact on the permanency of library and archival collections. The new standard would broaden the range of papers that can be designated as 'permanent' which, in turn, would probably make permanent paper cheaper and more accessible — and hence more likely to be widely adopted for publications.

And this is a good thing!

1. Bégin, P., S. Deschatelets, D. Grattan, N. Gurnagul, J. Iraci, E. Kaminska, D. Woods, and X. Zou. "The Impact of Lignin on Paper Permanence — A Comprehensive Study on the Ageing Behaviour of Handsheets and Commercial Paper Samples." Restaurator 19 (1998), pp. 135 - 154.
   
   
2. Bégin, P., S. Deschatelets, D. Grattan, N. Gurnagul, J. Iraci, E. Kaminska, D. Woods, and X. Zou. "The Effect of Air Pollutants on Paper Stability." Restaurator 20 (1999), pp. 1 - 22.