Acid Free Lignin Free Buffered

Why should you be concerned about the terms acid free lignin free buffered?

"What do these terms mean, anyway?"

If you have been scrap booking for awhile, you have probably heard all of these terms being used or seen them on product labels. Some people seem concerned about them and others are not. It's a good idea to be informed about what these things mean so you can make a choice about whether or not you will be concerned.

But what does acid free lignan free buffered mean? And how can your photo albums be affected by these qualities?>

Let's look at some facts about these terms:

• Acid is a substance that dissolves things. It eats them away. Acid is added to paper to make it easier to write on. Unfortunately, this same beneficial acid can eat away at your photos over time. I have seen friend's photo albums where the photo itself has been eaten through and the picture even obliterated over time. In some older albums, the photo itself had protected the paper it was mounted on and not the other way around! If I want a photo to last into another generation, I choose "acid free lignin free buffered" scrapbooking elements.

• Lignin is a substance that occurs naturally in wood. Paper is made out of wood. Lignin makes paper stronger. It is a biodegradable substance though so over time, it breaks down, turns brittle and changes colour to yellow and brown. If you have ever kept a newspaper article for a couple of years, you will know what I mean as it becomes very brittle and yellow. And newspaper is about 98% lignin free! I found some "acid free lignin free buffered" photocopying paper and I make sure I copy my precious newspaper articles onto it if I am going to put them in a scrapbook. I also make sure my other scrapbooking elements are lignin free if I want my project to last through the years without becoming brittle and yellowed.

• When paper is Buffered it means an alkaline substance has been added to it to reduce the effect of the acid content in it. So buffered paper will be safer for your memorabilia. However, some people say alkaline substances can also weaken paper. Certainly there seem to be fewer buffered paper products out there on sale for use in scrapbooks. You can find them, though. (More commonly you just find acid and lignin free products. They are safer than products without these characteristics).

Australia has standards for paper production when the paper is to be used for archival purposes. You can look for evidence that the product you want to use has complied with this standard. Other countries may have these standards too.

So what do you do about these concerns?

I'll tell you what I did. I checked all of my old albums for signs of deterioration. I found deterioration, especially in the older albums that had 'magnetised' pages with adhesive on them. These albums were popular in the 1970s and used very acidic adhesives.

I then took all of my photos out of their old albums and placed them in a 'photo safe' box made of polypropylene (make sure your photo storage boxes are not amde of plastic as that exudes a vapour that can harm photos). My photos won't deteriorate any more in the box.

I am gradually choosing photos to re-scrap with "acid free lignin free buffered" scrapbooking products. It's fun to re-do the old albums as my tastes and perspectives have changed considerably since I first started keeping albums when I was eight years old.

You may decide you do not want to do as I have done, but I encourage you to consider the following before making your decision:

• Who might be interested in your photos in the future? Will your children or grandchildren want to see what their relatives looked like? Will your photos last the distance?
• Do you have any heritage photos of historical interest that should be preserved the best way you know how?
• Do you have photos that would be hard to replace?
• Do you store all of your photos digitally? What if your digital storage system fails?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you will be able to make wise choices about choosing paper products labeled acid free lignin free buffered.

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