This month instead of showcasing a highlight from the archives I want to warn y’all against a common household item.

Behold the magnetic photo album:

It has no magnets, but its cardboard pages grip photographs on a sticky adhesive coating covered by a layer of plastic. The cardboard gives off peroxides that cause yellow staining in the whites of both black and white and color prints. The plastic covering is harmful because it completely seals the photographs in with the cardboard and gives off gases that attack the photographs. And the strips of adhesive material on the cardboard eventually forms a damaging bond to the photographs.

Your photos are better off in a shoebox than in these albums. Toss ‘em!