ISO 18902 - Imaging Materials -Processed Imaging Materials - Albums, framing and Storage materials The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has just published an updated version of its ISO18902 document which deals with requirements for testing the quality of storage, display, and album products for traditional and digital photographs. The previous versions of the standard had been primarily targeted to museums and archives and not the manufacturers of consumer products. This new version of the standard includes updates specifically for digital photographs, consumer photography, and scrapbooking materials.

One of the most important additions is a definition for "photo-safe". Up until this point, this term has meant many different things to different people. The new standard defines a product as photo-safe when it "meets the requirements of this International Standard so that it will not accelerate the natural ageing of photographic prints or films." In order to be photo-safe, materials must meet a number of requirements detailed within the 18902 document, pass specific tests, and have properties specified in the document for each material type: paper and paper board, plastics, metal, adhesives, writing instruments, rubber stamp products, photo albums, and picture frames. However, just because a package is now labeled photo-safe, it doesn't mean that the manufacturer is abiding by the ISO definition. The package should state that the product "meets ISO 18902" or is "photo-safe as per ISO 18902." It should then have been tested and be in compliance with all the requirements of the standard.

A second important revision is the inclusion of a definition for "acid-free". This term, too, has had little consistent meaning in the marketplace. The new standard states that to be called acid-free a paper or adhesive must have a cold extraction pH between 7.0 ± 0.2 and 9.5 ± 0.2. The cold extraction method is a specific way of measuring pH that is more accurate than other methods some manufacturers have used. Now any purchaser of a product can ask, "Does this mean acid-free as defined by ISO 18902?"

Many companies have pursued quality and addressed permanence concerns internally, yet some companies still believe that these issues are not of value to their customers. If the long-term safety of your photographic and memory collections is important to you, please let your favorite companies know this, and ask that their products comply with this updated ISO standard.

And finally remember that while companies can work hard to manufacture safe materials; photos will always need to be stored properly in order to last a long time. Storage environments with wide temperature swings, high temperatures, high humidity, high levels of airborne pollutants, or lots of light can negate any effort put into purchasing high-quality storage products. How you as consumers store these types of materials will also have a great effect, either positive or negative, on the long-term safety of your memory collections.