Volume 15, Number 7
Nov 1991

Deacidification

• On September 12-13, 1991, NEDCC and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) met in Andover to share information on mass deacidification pilot programs. The round table was supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Management teams from 10 ARL institutions, including library directors, collections development officers, and preservation officers as well as other invited speakers and observers, discussed decision-making for incorporating a mass deacidification program as part of an institutional preservation program.

  Donald Sebera was present to report on the Library of Congress's procedure and experience with the solicitation for mass deacidification services, and explain why it rejected bids from all three bidders. Selection models were presented, and categories of materials susceptible for mass deacidification were identified. Reports on trial treatment programs brought together data that was shared for the first time, and the preservation administrators who carried out these programs (Richard Frieder, James Stroud, Robert Milevski, Scott Bennett and one or more others) will talk about their experience with others who are considering their own program. Gerald Garvey, in the Preservation Directorate at the Library of Congress (202/707-5213), would like to talk to anyone who has had materials deacidified.

  There was consensus that further development of mass deacidification was worth the time and effort, and that pilot programs should be carried out in a coordinated way. The group agreed to coordinate analysis of testing results and to identify areas for further testing.

  Tapes of the meeting are available now, and the minutes may be ready for distribution as early as December. For more information, call NEDCC (508/470-1010) and ask for the October 1991 news release.

• Independent evaluations of the different deacidification methods are being done by a) Anne Lienardy in Belgium and b) Helmut Bansa in Germany, according to Bob Wedinger of FMC. There is also c) the study being conducted at the Canadian Conservation Institute under the direction of Helen Burgess, for the Metropolitan Toronto Chairman's Committee for Preserving Documentary Heritage; and d) the Library of Congress's completed study, the data from which have been released (AN, Oct. 1991, front page).

• At the Society of American Archivists meeting, Morris Warren was on a deacidification panel representing the BPA process, which uses ammonia and ethylene oxide to make ethanolamines. He mentioned that a recent study had found that ethylene oxide, far from being the dreadful poison we all thought it was, is actually good for you. Subsequently he furnished this office with a copy of the study on which he based his statement: "Mortality Among Workers Exposed to Ethylene Oxide," by Kyle Steenland and six other people, all from the Cincinnati NIOSH office and the National Cancer Institute; in the New England Journal of Medicine, May 16, 199 1, p. 1402-1407. Over 18,000 workers exposed to EtO at work were studied; overall there was no significant increase in mortality from any cause in the study cohort, as compared with the general population. Mortality was lower for some types of diseases, higher for others. Clearly the results from this large-scale epidemiological study with humans bear little relationship to the results based on the usual animal studies. That NIOSH office, by the way, is the same one that did the dioxin study this year, showing that even people who were exposed to 90 times ambient levels of dioxin showed no increase in cancer decades later. Researchers are beginning to draw the conclusion that animal testing for toxic effects, especially with rodents (whose bodies work differently), has been based upon false assumptions, and a lot of previous work will have to be reevaluated.

• River View Binding, in Fort Pierce, Florida, is offering the FMC deacidification process to its customers. This company specializes in "rebinding, repair, restoration [and] paper preservation."

• The French and German national libraries are both using deacidification methods based on magnesium compounds, in small mass treatment plants. In addition, the Bibliotheque de France has contracted with two companies to develop a method with the advantages of existing methods but no disadvantages. The two companies are Hoechst and Usine Speciale de Separation Isotopique.

• Two patents were taken out on the Wei T'o process, one on the composition of the deacidifying solution (1972) and one on the process for making the solution (1982). The first one expired in 1989, so others may now use magnesium compounds obtained independently for book and paper treatment.