Alkaline paper and photographic materials

I am currently using a colored paper behind photos in photo
scrapbooks, to frame or highlight them on the page. A consultant at
Creative Memories researched their 80 pound colored paper, and was
able to report to me that all of it was made in France, is acid
free, lignin free, and fade proof, and that one set of papers had a
pH of 7.5 and the other (a different group of colors, I believe) was
7.8 to 8.0. I noticed in a DistList posting about recycled paper
from Ellen McCrady  that "for storing color photographic materials
you want to *avoid* use of paper that meets the ANSI/NISO Z39.48
standard, because a pH above 7.5 damages them."

I'd like to know more about this--what kind of damage, etc.  I
understand that new studies are shedding light on conservation
issues all the time and that Creative Memories was probably very
conscious of its company choices for paper when the company was
formed in 1987, but that this paper may no longer be appropriate.

Would the damage be significant enough to warrant concern for family
photos, keeping in mind that the pages of the scrapbook itself (as
opposed to the colored paper used to accent the photos) are acid
free, lignin free and have passed the Photographic Activity Test? To
my consultant's knowledge, the colored paper had not been tested. It
was probably considered of archival quality and thus used. She
couldn't find out anything more from the company headquarters.

Ginny Lindzey
2321 Westrock Dr.
Austin, TX 78704

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 9:14
                   Distributed: Friday, July 28, 1995
                        Message Id: cdl-9-14-010
                                  ***