Originally Posted by
Drew Wiley
Avoiding outgassing or contaminants is CRUCIAL during both storage and framing, not optional. OSB is outright voodoo; so is particle board and nearly all common plywood. The glues involved contain formaldehyde; and that's why most such sheet goods are now made in China with its lax health rules during manufacture. Formaldehyde is poison to image permanence; so are vinyl plasticizers, so are turpenes and outgassing paint or varnish vapors. All this has been very well known for a long long time. Entire galleries owned by otherwise rich people have gone instantly bankrupt making that mistake just once, when lawsuits showed up from clients angry over how their purchases had soon begun fading or discoloring. I sometimes found myself in a "told you so, and you should have listened" mode, because we carried such goods where I worked, and had big art venues among our customers. There are certain things you don't even want anywhere around photographs. If it's just a pH problem with acidity in a backing, then use a thin sheet of mylar in between. Outgassing -nope; avoid that like the plague.
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