“I have done some testing on scrap-

booking supplies on my own at home,

but have NO IDEA as to whether or

not it is effective. For example, I have

put metal decorations that I wanted

to use on a scrapbook page into a

pouch (i.e., commercial scrapbook

page protector that is supposedly

“safe”) with acid-free white card-

stock. I waited two weeks to see if any

acid that might have been in the

metal decoration had transferred

itself onto the white cardstock. I took

out the white cardstock and used a

pH pen to test for acidity where the

metal decoration had rested.The pH

pen stayed blue on my white card-

stock and therefore I assumed it was

okay to use the metal decoration.As

you can see, this is hardly objective

testing, but it was the best I could

come up with for at-home use.

I also wonder about the safety of

the boxes,containers,and plastic pages

I use to store my scrapbooking sup-

plies. Again, I have put white acid-free

cardstock into the container/box for

two weeks and tested the cardstock

with my pH pen afterward to see if any

acid would be detected.

Embellishments are a very popular

trend in scrapbooking now, but I am

unsure whether a lot of these items

are safe (like glitter, micro-beads, but-

tons, metal decor, ribbons, flexi-foam).

Since a lot of these items are non-per-

meable, I don't see how my pH pen

can test their acidity. Reference my

test for the metal decorations. How

reliable is such home testing with just

a pH pen and white cardstock? Should

I wait longer than two weeks? Any sug-

gestions of testing decorative items

would be much appreciated!”

M E RY D I T H M AT H I E U S , O F F R I E N D S & FA M I LY

S C R A P B O O K I N G I N T E X A S , A S K E D A G R E AT Q U E S T I O N

A B O U T P R E S E RVAT I O N A N D H OW TO AC C U R AT E LY T E S T

T H E A R C H I VA L Q UA L I T Y O F S O M E O F T H E P R O D U C T S

O N T H E M A R K E T TO DAY. H E R Q U E S T I O N F O L L OW S .

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SCIENCEof Scrapbooking

Preservation Q&ABY DANIEL BURGE

Many companies sell products into the scrapbook market, and most are keenly aware of the need to imply their products are of archival quality. How they come to that conclusion is of major concern to you.

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I HAVE BEEN A CONSULTING MEMBER OF THE

scrapbook industry for many years on avariety of issues related to preservation. Ido not intend to suggest which products tobuy or which techniques are best. Productsand trends in our industry change rapidly,so any advice on what to buy or whichtechnique to use would probably be use-less next year. By teaching you some of theprinciples and concepts behind preserva-tion and preservation science, I hope toprovide information that will be helpfulfor years to come.

Merydith’s test method is well thoughtout, but because she is missing a fewfacts, her results will probably be inac-curate. First, it’s important to know thatjust because a material is not acidic nowdoesn’t mean that it will not becomeacidic over time. In fact, all paper prod-ucts tend toward greater acidity. This iswhy paper manufacturers add alkalinebuffers to their products. Over time,these buffers can absorb acids slowlyforming within the paper or beingabsorbed from the atmosphere and neu-tralize them to salt and water. Acids thatmight build up over time would be hardto predict with your method because youare testing in real-time.

move, and react with scrapbook materialsand photographs. The higher the moisturecontent of the air, the more acids can formand the more reactions can occur. Themoisture content of your test will bedirectly proportional to the relativehumidity of the test environment. In otherwords, your test would produce one set ofresults in Hawaii where it is usually humidand another set of results in Arizonawhere it is usually dry.

The last way to accelerate aging is toI N C R E A S E T H E T E M P E R A T U R E .Increasing temperature increases the

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Here’s an example of what I mean byreal-time testing, and I hear this one alot. In this well-meaning experiment, inksamples, photos, or digital photos areplaced on a windowsill for a week andthen checked to see if the colors havefaded. If the color has not faded, thenthe experimenter assumes the ink orimaging material to be lightfast. In real-ity, all that he or she has determined inthis weeklong test is whether the colorswill last one week. The only way to seeif they would last twenty years on thewindowsill would be to leave them therefor twenty years.

So, how do you predict what some-thing will look like far into the future?The way that scientists find out if amaterial will change over the long-termis to accelerate the aging process. One ofthe ways to accelerate aging is toI N C R E A S E C O N C E N T R AT I O N O F T H E

H A R M F U L A G E N T . For your test, theharmful agent in question was acid. Inpaper, acids are formed internally througha variety of ways (acid-hydrolysis or thethermal degradation of lignin) or absorbedfrom the external environment, eitherfrom the air (from pollution) or adjacentobjects (like embellishments). For testingmaterials that generate harmful contam-inants internally, such as paper, scientistsput them in sealed bags so that the air inthe room doesn’t dilute the concentra-tion of the contaminant. For examiningthe effects of harmful contaminants inthe air, they use special chambers intowhich the contaminant can be intro-duced in controlled amounts.

Another way to accelerate aging is toI N C R E A S E T H E M O I S T U R E C O N C E N -

T R AT I O N . Acids need moisture to form,

chemical reaction rates. The higher thetemperature, the faster the changes willoccur in the material. In the laboratory,we use special incubation chambers toincrease both the reaction rate (by con-trolling temperature) and the concentrationof moisture (by controlling relativehumidity). In addition, we sometimes usethe special methods discussed above toincrease the concentration of harmfulagents (such as acids). Resist the tempta-tion to use your home oven as a high-temperature test chamber. Not only isthere a real fire risk as the heat goes upin the oven, the humidity will go downmaking any results invalid.

In addition to artificially aging a mate-rial, you also need a way to measure anychanges. Therefore, an important part ofpredictive testing is using the right detec-tors for change and the right measuringdevices. In your test, you used the whitecardstock as the detector for change anda pH pen as the measuring device. Whatyou probably didn’t know was that thepaper stock you used most likely con-tained alkaline fillers that neutralize anyacids emitted from the embellishment. Thenet result was that you might have had an

Continued on Page 131

It’s important to knowthat just because amaterial is not acidicnow doesn’t mean thatit will not becomeacidic over time.

In addition to artificiallyaging a material, you alsoneed a way to measureany changes.Therefore,an important part ofpredictive testing is usingthe right detectors forchange and the rightmeasuring devices.

labeled as “archival” that aren’tarchival at all. With careful questioning,you can know which ones really arearchival and have been shown to be sothrough accurate testing.

S O M E P OT E N T I A L

Q U E S T I O N S TO A S K

I N C L U D E T H E F O L L OW I N G :

1 Were tests performed to prove the claim?

2 Do these tests rely on a pH pen or an ad hoc method, or were they performed in an appropriate laboratory following accepted test methods?

3 Were these tests performed by the company or by an independent laboratory?

4 When were these tests last performed?Have there been any formulationchanges since then?

If the tests were ad hoc and performedthree years ago on the desk of the com-pany’s sales representative, you have alegitimate reason to question their valid-ity and should ask for further proof ofarchival quality. If the tests were recentlyperformed in an independent laboratoryfollowing a standardized method, thenyou can have at the very least the assur-ance that the company is striving tomatch their products to their claims.

Daniel Burge is a Research Scientist at theImage Permanence Institute at the RochesterInstitute of Technology. He has been investi-gating the potentially harmful interactionsbetween photo storage products and photo-graphs for the last twelve years. He is alsoactive as a member and educator in theScrapbook Preservation Society.

the chances for a false positive. In sim-pler words, their answers are morelikely to be right.

An even more fundamental problemwith Merydith’s test is her basic assump-tion that acids are the problem to beginwith. Yes, acids can be bad. Some acidtypes are worse than others, but justbecause a material is acid-free doesn’tmean that it is safe for your scrapbook!There are other chemicals in scrapbookproducts and in the air around us thatcan also do great damage. Testing onlyfor acids can give a false sense of secu-rity when other, even greater dangers,lurk beneath. Unfortunately, many mem-bers of our trade still use “acid-free” asa catch-all term implying scrapbook-safeand photo-safe.

Many companies sell products intothe scrapbook market, and most arekeenly aware of the need to imply theirproducts are of archival quality. Howthey come to that conclusion is of majorconcern to you. Inappropriate test meth-ods (or worse, the complete lack of anytest methods) on the manufacturer’s partmay result in your selling products

acidic embellishment that couldn’t causethe paper to become acidic enough for youto read with your pH pen.

As for using the pH pen as yourmeasuring device, you have potential forinaccuracy here too. The pen works byspreading a line of special dye (calledindicator) onto the surface of the paper.The presence of acids or alkaline mate-rials in the paper causes the dye tochange to one color for acid and toanother color for alkaline. The accuracyof this method is dependent on manythings, including the acid level directlyat the paper’s surface, the presence ofspecial dyes or coatings on the paper’ssurface, the cleanliness of the paperbeing tested, the state of the indicatordye in terms of its own useful shelf life,and the amount of acids that the indica-tor dye may have absorbed from theatmosphere and/or previous tests. Wow,that’s a lot that can go wrong. This iswhy you should avoid using pH pens fortesting acid levels. However, pH pens aretruly effective for evaluating materialsalready in use for which a decision aboutreplacement must be made.

By using a real-time test with a faultytest detector and an unreliable measur-ing device, chances are almost all of thematerials you try it on will “pass” eventhough they may prove over time to beharmful to photos and your scrapbook.In science, we call this a false positive. Byusing special artificial aging equipment,appropriate detectors and measuringdevices, and published standardized testmethods, scientists are able to minimize

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By using a real-time test with a faulty test detectorand an unreliable measuring device, chances arealmost all of the materials you try it on will “pass”even though they may prove over time to beharmful to photos and your scrapbook.

1 Homemade tests are often atgreat risk for false positive results.

2 The real-time tests by manufac-turers are also at great risk forfalse positive results.

3 Accelerated aging requires in-creasing the harmful agents,moisture, and/or temperature.

4 Accurate preservation testingrequires skill, special apparatus,and good test methods.

5 Acid-free doesn’t tell the wholestory about scrapbook safety.

6 Just because something is photo-safe doesn’t mean it’sscrapbook-safe.

H E R E I S A B R I E F S U M M A RY O F P R I N C I P L E S A N D

C O N C E P T S TO R E M E M B E R :

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