Fire, Flood, and Humidity: Archival Risks Most Agencies Ignore Until It’s Too Late
Public agencies work hard to protect records from theft or unauthorized access, yet the greater threat is environmental decay. Temperature, humidity, and airborne dust quietly damage archives long before deterioration becomes visible. By the time damage is detected, files needed for audits, FOIA responses, or legal proceedings may already be unreadable.
The Slow Degradation of Paper and Microfilm
Archival loss seldom occurs in a single disaster. It develops gradually through conditions that go unnoticed for years:
- Humidity causes paper to swell, curl, and fuse together.
- Ink fades faster in uncontrolled temperature zones.
- Microfilm warps or develops vinegar syndrome from chemical breakdown.
- Boxes stored on concrete floors absorb moisture during seasonal shifts.
Because the damage progresses silently, agencies often believe their records are secure until a retrieval request reveals the truth.
Compliance Risk in Storage Conditions
Regulations presume that records will remain complete and retrievable on demand. During investigations or litigation, the inability to produce a file is rarely excused. Environmental neglect is interpreted as a process failure, even when access policies exist on paper.
Controlled Storage as Risk Prevention
Preserving archives does not require digitizing every record. It requires housing them in environments specifically engineered to prevent chemical, thermal, and moisture damage. Climate control, elevated racking, and archival-grade containers extend the usable life of records and sustain compliance readiness — without changing how agencies request or retrieve materials.
Agencies that transition at-risk collections into GRM’s controlled storage environments prevent irreversible loss, reduce liability, and maintain confidence in their ability to produce records when required.