Heat set tissue

I am a paper conservator student at the University of Gothenburg,
Sweden, working on my Bachelor degree.  I am working on the topic
"archival quality of heat-set tissue and tape". Many of the heat-set
products are claimed by the manufacturers to be of so-called
"archival quality" and I know that the term is used also on other
products.  My problem is now to find a definition for the term used
on the mentioned products.

Related to the definition of "archival quality", I have tried to ask
a few manufacturers to give me information on chemical composition
of the products. The manufacturers though  choose to keep it as a
trade secret, which is not very good in a quality assurance point of
view.

The manufacturers define "archival quality" as "material safe for
long time storage", "products that do not contain any chemicals that
can adversely effect a collection", "non-ageing and non-yellowing".
What do the readers of Cons DistList think of these definitions?

Another question related to the topic is, when did this term came
into use and in which context?

    **** Moderator's comments: The terminological question has been
    discussed before. Please see the DistList archives at
    <URL:http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/>

Hanne Karin Sandvik
University of Gothenburg
Sweden


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:70
                   Distributed: Sunday, May 23, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-17-70-022
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