Storing Slides and Negatives in home vacuum sealed bags

 

Im looking for some direction about using a home vacuum packing system for the long term storage of my photographs, slides and negatives.

I have a FoodSaver system and Im pretty sure the bags are safe. They have two layers of polyethylene with an outer layer of nylon. I’ve used them for storage of different types of textiles without ill effects (over 4 years in the bag).

My slides and negative are currently stored in archival pages, in binders, in boxes. I would like to put a few of the filled pages into the Foodsaver bags and then vacuum seal them. I’ve been pretty lucky in that my house wasn’t too severely effected by the fall storms of the last couple of years ( Irene, freak October snow storm and Sandy) but I want to protect these photographic materials from damage that those types of storms can bring. Im in the process of digitizing all my images ( 40 years worth) and was looking to use the vacuum sealed bags as a long term storage option.

My two real concerns are
not squashing the materials too tightly and
2) any side effects from storing the items in a vacuum.

I can get around the squashing issue by putting the slides and negatives into archival boxes and then vacuum packing the boxes. But what about the effects of the vacuum?

Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

Gary DeGruccio
Bethlehem PA.

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