Literature

Videotape, "Big Fears ... Little Risks," available from Film Counselors for $250 (212/315-3950), is available from the American Paper Institute (API) for $75 to API members; it is not available to nonmembers. Seven leading scientists and physicians concerned with cancer research and public health policy put health risks in perspective. Prepared under the sponsorship of the American Council on Science and Health and narrated by Walter Cronkite, the videotape concludes that the trace levels of natural and man-made carcinogens now being detected in food, water, and air in the parts per billion range and lower pose no significant threat to human health. For more information, call John Festa, API-DC, 202/463-2587. The tape is available for $75 from Dianne Peck, API-DC, 202/463-2593. CPPA is making it available too. Duration: 30 minutes.

Videotape, "Paper Industry USA: 300 Years of Progress, 1690-1990," was produced by the API. Most of its 10-minute length is made up of attractive, rapidly projected still photographs, with a narrative that is more inspirational than educational. The last minute or so is a message of congratulation from President Bush on the occasion of the 300th anniversary, and appreciation for the industry's help with reforestation, the clean air act, and recycling. order from American Paper Institute, Dept. V, 1250 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20036 (202/463-2599). $19.95.

Videotape, "International Paper: Ticonderoga Mill," VHS, 16 minutes, costs only $11.00 including postage and handling from David Schaefer & Co., Chace Mill East, One Mill St., Burlington, VT 05401 (802/864-3131). Although the focus is on the Ticonderoga mill, a lot of information about papermaking--from logging to converting operations and waste water treatment--is given in a clear and accurate manner, emphasizing Ticonderoga's history, modern facilities, responsible environmental practices, and the permanence advantages of the paper it makes.

Videotape, "Turning to Dust." Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a program in the series "The Nature of Things," produced by David Murray and narrated by David Suzuki. 60 min. Aired in Canada March 14, and is expected to be shown on cable channels in this country. Available in the U.S. through Filmmaker's Library, 124 E. 40th St., NYC 10016 (212/ 808-4980); $65 to rent, $395 to buy; small libraries or individuals with limited budgets can apply for discounts.

This has a great opening: "Something terrible is happening to books all over the world. They're self-destructing." To illustrate the point, someone opens a book with crumbled brittle pages and blows the bits out onto the floor. This dramatic device is not bad in itself (and not too far from reality, either), but it is used at least four more times in the next hour, which is a bit off-putting.

The ways of coping with deteriorating paper and books are reviewed (boxing, filming, strengthening) as well as ways of preventing deterioration (environmental control, deacidification, use of alkaline paper), and there are up-to-date facts and interesting shots like the interior of an old limestone mine in Pennsylvania, used for storing microfilm.

The closing comments are as dramatic as the opening. They go something like this: "The collective memory of humankind is at stake. Books are where we keep the things we value--our past, our future, ourselves. But now they're proving mortal just like us." The point is made powerfully. The producer says that a lot of people saw the news value of it (since they have never seen "Slow Fires" in Canada) and wondered why they weren't told about it earlier.

TAPPI proceedings, 1990 Papermakers Conference. 415 pp. The price has not been set an the volume, but it will be about $50 for members and $75 for nonmembers. Order from TAPPI Press, Technology Park/Atlanta, PO Box 105113, Atlanta, GA 30348 (404/446-1400, ext. 317). Some of the most interesting papers in it are:

The Use of Pigments at the Size Press - A European View
Aluminum Compounds as Cationic Donors in Alkaline Papermaking
Fine Paper - Recycling
Process and Product Optimization in Alkaline Papermaking
The Strong Bond/Weak Bond Theory of Sizing II: Alkyl Ketene Dimer and the Strong Bond/Weak Bond Theory
Modified PCC Fillers to Reduce Sizing Demand and Improve Runnability

Effect of Recycling on the Physical Properties of Specific Fibers and Their Networks," by John F. Bobalek and Mayank Chaturvedi. In Proceedings, 1988 TAPPI Pulping Conference, p. 183-187. Under conditions of minimal refining, optical and dimensional characteristics of waterleaf handsheets made from five types of pulp were constant with recycling. Opposed to this, consistent strength loss was observed by four different measures for all furnishes. The data represents a successful systematic assembly of the sort of empirical measurements required to predict and control the properties of a paper/paperboard grade for a given end-use.

Pulp & Paper, March 1990, has a 13-page Special Report on deinking, with three articles, lists, graphs and process flow charts (p. 71-85). One of them is "Municipal Solid Waste and the Paper Industry: The Next Five Years," by Fred D. Iannazzi and Richard Strauss (P. 222-225), in which the problems in recovery of printing and writing papers are discussed. Nine developments that may help reduce the printing/writing paper load in municipal solid waste are listed.

"Wastepaper Report Indicates Increased Usage and Recovery' by Jackie Cox. American Papermaker, Dec. 1989, p. 27.

There are five major grades of waste paper, the raw material for recycled paper:

High grade deinking
Pulp substitutes
Corrugated
Newspapers
Mixed grades.

Over the last 20 years or so, the total of all grades has risen by 50%, to about 20 million tons. Within that total, the proportion of pulp substitutes (white trimmings from envelopes and other high grade paper) has remained steady; mixed grades has fallen by half; and corrugated has risen by about 50% The rate of wastepaper recovery grew slightly during the period.

"Briquet and the Future of Paper Studies," by Allan H. Stevenson. In Briquet's Opuscula: The Complete Works of Dr. C.M. Briquet, without Les Filigranes. (Monumenta Chartae Papyraceae Historian Illustrantia IV) Paper Publications Society, Hilversum, 1955. "Briquet's most revolutionary exploit was his rejection and disproof of the old, old theory that early paper had been made of cotton.... In 1886 ... he was able to report on microscopic analyses of no fewer than 122 manuscripts owned by archives and libraries of Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, England, and ranging in date from 960 to the eighteenth century for Arabian paper and through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries for European paper. Every single manuscript proved to be made up of hemp or linen fibers, or a mixture of these...."

Natural Ageing of Paper: Swedish Papers 1908-1988, by Marie Louise Samelsson and Karin Sörner. Rept. #4 in the FoU-projektet för papperskonservering. ISSN 0284-5636. 1990. Order from Riksarkivet, Box 12541, 102 29 Stockholm, Sweden. Papers (mostly rag or part rag) from four manufacturers from 1908 to 1988 have been tested immediately after manufacture and after natural and accelerated aging on a number of physical and compositional characteristics, especially retention of fold. "...The permanence of the papers made from different fibres in this investigation are much the same. The durabilities, measured as fold numbers are, however, approximately ten times higher for the rag papers than for the papers made from chemical pulp." Much information and data. Most of the text is in Swedish, but all the graph legends are in English and Swedish. About 110 pages long.

The Fine Paper Directory, which includes the Competitive Grade Finder, has had the Grade Finder redesigned. it is now in tabular form, and gets more information into less space, in easy-to-consult form. It costs $80; the Pocket Grade Finder costs $25. (The new Competitive Grade Finder itself won t be out till fall.) These three directories, all compiled from the same database, are the only ones on the market that identify alkaline paper. order from Grade Finders, Inc., 662 Exton Commons, Exton, PA 19341 (215/5247070).

The August issue of In-Plant Printer will carry Part I of a series on alkaline paper. One of the questions it will address is, "What are the problems associated with using alkaline grades, especially for the small printer?"