| Abstract: | Summaries. In a Washington laboratory nearly 20 years ago two scientists began to work on a process that now offers considerable promise in halting deterioration of paper-based records in research libraries and archives groups throughout the world. Using Diethyl Zinc or DEZ in the gas phase, the Library of Congress demonstrated that the compound could penetrate the pages of closed books to (1) convert acids present to their corresponding neutral salt and (2) establish a stable, uniform reserve of zinc oxide to protect the paper from future acid attack. To insure that the process is available world-wide and at reasonable cost, the U.S. Government granted exclusive rights to the DEZ Process to Akzo in 1989. Issues of safety were fully resolved in a semi-commercial treatment unit which Akzo operates in the vicinity of Houston, Texas. It has capacity for 40,000 books per year, and will be modified shortly to increase its size to 140,000 books per year. In May, 1991, the Johns Hopkins University entered a 12 month agreement to preserve collection materials using the DEZ Process. A critical part of the library's evaluation was an independent review of the available toxicology information and the development of an independent risk assessment. |
|---|
