CCI Newsletter, No. 27, June 2001

The New Canadian Standard for Permanent Paper Has Been Adopted

Canada has a new national standard for permanent paper (CAN/CGSB-9.70)—the result of nearly a decade of research done by the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada and CCI.¹

The need for this standard was driven by the growing use of recycled paper and the longer-term challenge of preserving documents and publications printed on rapidly deteriorating acid paper. The need was particularly urgent in the case of recycled paper because of the difficulty in exercising control over its fibre content.

The research on which this standard is based was designed to study the factors that affect paper permanency, and the industry's ideas about this issue were very different from those of the archival community (the custodians of Canada's documentary and written heritage). The primary factor proved to be acidity from external sources (e.g. air pollutants), but research showed that the addition of calcium carbonate as a buffering compound could counteract the effect of air pollutants and improve the stability of paper. The research also showed that the composition of paper (e.g. the presence of lignin or surface coatings) can cause discoloration with age, even in otherwise stable paper. A distinction has therefore been made between mechanical and optical stability.

The new standard provides for a broad range of material to be used in the manufacture of permanent paper. This should lead to an increase in its use, which will in turn have a major impact on the preservation of paper documents.

CCI is proud to have been part of the work leading to the development of this standard.

1. For more information, see CCI Newsletter No. 24 (November 1999), "A New Canadian Standard for Permanent Paper".