What Makes Photo Papers Age or Fogged?

[RedSun]

I just tried three boxes of very old Kodak Polycontrast print papers. One is plain RC, one is RC Rapids and the other is RC II rapids. All of them are about 30 years old :p. The RC Rapids box is perfect. But the RC and RC II Rapids are all fogged. I do not think the papers were opened, but just stored in garage or basement.

Will storage in hot place like garage make the paper fogged?

[Kevin Crisp]

Some papers just don't age well. Kodak Polymax, unfortunately, was one of them. Keeping them refrigerated or cold can add years to shelf life. The worst thing you can do is store them in a hot place, you're lucky one box is OK.

[Vaughn]

Gremlins and sprites -- oh, and that dang Tinkerbell and all that sparky stuff (probably radioactive) that she trails behind her.

A lot of the old paper -- really old paper, has great keeping qualities...perhaps the heavy metals in them (cadmium, etc)? I know the older Agfa Portiga Rapid keeps better than the newer