Literature

"European Toilet Tissue... and Other Sorrows," by Ken L. Patrick. Pulp & Paper, May 1992, p. 9. This is a hilarious editorial essay, which will be appreciated by anyone who has ever travelled to Europe. The author concludes that it is not incompetence, but a preference for inferior tissue, that explains the rolls of glassine or wax-paper type stuff they put in their bathrooms. A contest is under way to choose good toilet paper names for the different tissues, names that would be really descriptive, such as Herr Crackle or Glaze.

"Paper Work is a Risk for Hand Eczema." Health Saf. Ind. Commer. 15 #1, Jan. 1992, p. 7-8. The abstract of this article in Paper & Board Abstracts says that people who are allergic to colophony may get eczema if they handle paper a lot. It defines colophony both as rosin from living pine trees and as tall oil rosin, a byproduct of paper manufacture. Tall oil rosin does not come from paper manufacture, though; it comes from pulping. Smook's Handbook of Pulp and Paper Terminology defines colophony as medium and high grades of rosin, and tall oil rosin as a byproduct of pulping: "Rosin remaining after the removal of most of the fatty acids from tall oil by fractional distillation or other suitable means." Tall oil is a "generic name for a number of products derived from the resinous mixture of saponified fatty and resin acids, sterols, high-molecular-weight alcohols and other materials skimmed from kraft pulping waste liquors." The abstract does not make clear whether the colophony is left in the paper because it was never washed out, or whether it was added for sizing purposes. Whatever it is, the allergy to it is said to be pre-existing, not acquired as a result of contact with paper.

"Report to Congress on the Permanent Paper Law," Abbey Newsletter, Feb. 1992, p. 11-13. This is a reprint of the first part of the report turned in Dec. 1991 by the Library of Congress, National Archives and Government Printing Office. It includes the report methodology and the issues and recommendations (notably that alkaline paper be used for everything for the time being, and that permanent paper be specified only for certain types of very important documents). The second part of the report is reprinted in the April issue, p. 25-27: "Update on the Permanent Paper Resolution, Part 2." It reports what each of the three agencies has done to implement the law in its own operations. There is a section on recycled materials, which says, "The impact of recycled materials upon the longevity and endurance of paper will be of major concern in the immediate future.... The presorting of postconsumer waste would have to be performed at a high degree of competence to exclude paper and paper products that contain groundwood fibers....

Papers from the Paper Physics Conference

The 1991 International Paper Physics Conference was held September 22-27 in Hawaii. Some of the papers given there were:

Variable Humidity and Load Interaction in Tensile Creep of Paper, by H. Haslach, M.G. Pecht and X. Wu

The Effects of Recycling on Paper Smoothness, by A. Chatterjee, J. Lee, D.N. Roy and P. Whiting Mechanical Properties of Cut-Out Fibers in Recycling, by F. Wuu, R. E. Mark and R. W. Perkins Paper to Paper and Paper to Metal Friction, by E.L. Back

The Influence of Cyclic Relative Humidity on the Creep and Hygroexpansion of Corrugated Board in Pure Bending, by C. Söremark and C.N. Fellers

Effect of Recycling on Tear and Fracture Resistance, by A. Chatterjee, S. Teki, D.N. Roy and P. Whiting