Volume 05, Number 5
Nov 1992

News

Popularity of Infinity Sign for Permanence Grows

The sign for infinity , set in a circle, is a trademark of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), intended to mean that paper bearing this sign meets the ANSI/NISO standard for permanence. It is used increasingly by publishers to indicate that their books are printed on paper meeting the standard, and papermakers are encouraged by NISO to mark any product that meets the standard with the sign.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has an appendix in the current draft for its standard, "Information and Documentation-Paper for Documents-Requirements for Permanence," that also designates the infinity sign in a circle as a symbol of compliance, but with the number of the standard beneath it: "ISO 9706."

There is still no symbol for alkaline paper. We may not need a symbol, because the word "alkaline" or "neutral" could be used, either abbreviated or spelled out, for papers that do not meet permanence standards.

Environmental Enhancement in Maine and California

• In Maine, the problem was the condition of the Androscoggin River, which contained so much oxygen-consuming sediment from past decades of unregulated discharge that oxygen levels were below the required minimum of 5.0 milligrams per liter, even though all major discharges to the river had been controlled. The solution: oxygenate the river during the months of July, August and September, when oxygen levels are lowest. A spokesman for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection called it "a permanent solution whose concept is simple." Up to 120,000 lb/day of oxygen is injected through porous ceramic diffuser plates mounted 30 feet below the river's surface. It is all being paid for by three paper companies and one electric utility (who must be the current owners of the facilities responsible for the original discharges-the news note in the October Tappi Journal does not say). The paper companies, which have formed a consortium for this project, are Boise Cascade, International Paper, and James River.
• On the northern California coast, the problem was the generally unsavory and unhygienic water in the vicinity of Louisiana-Pacific's Samoa kraft pulp mill and the Simpson Paper Company's pulp mill up the coast at Fairhaven. Surfers, whose hobby causes them to swallow a lot of ocean water, not to mention occasionally inhaling it and getting it in their eyes, made a formal objection, and last year an out-of-court settlement was made in their favor. The settlement involved both paper companies, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Surfrider Foundation. As a result, both companies agreed to make changes. The changes agreed to by Simpson are not described in the October PIMA Magazine on p. 8, the source of this information, but Louisiana-Pacific has plans to make their pulp mill the first absolutely chlorine-free (ACF) mill in North America, as part of a more general modernization project that will reduce biological oxygen demand, color and odor of effluent, as well as eliminating discharge of dioxin and chloroform. The project cost $75 million.

New Government Paper Specification Standards

In June the joint Committee on Printing (which sets the paper standards for the federal government) mailed out a list of 38 new and revised standards. The ones that called for a minimum pH of 6.0 (by cold extraction) are:

The pH requirement is automatically waived for A61 and H30 "if permanence is not a factor for the paper's intended end use." Only the pH of the coating is specified for A240, A261, A262, L11, L12, L61 and L62. No alkaline reserve is required for any type of paper but A270, A560, H30, and 0-560. These new standards represent progress, but cannot be seen as evidence that the federal government is taking a leadership position in the implementation of the permanent paper law, PL 101423. One would think that three-quarters of the JCP's standards would call for alkaline paper, if not permanent paper, since three-quarters of all freesheet produced in this country is alkaline; but only a tiny minority of the 100 or so standards in the book do this.