J P Pavas Oy
Latex
In the past decades the development in latices has been to include much less monomer residues than previously. Many of these residual monomers were toxic to microbes and inhibiting microbial growth. Reducing their amount has had the unwanted side effect of increasing the susceptibility of latex to problems due to microbial activity.
Unexpected microbial activity can lead into an unfortunate situation when large storage tanks are heavily contaminated with microbes. This contamination can in extreme case render the product unusable technically and in any case cause contamination problems in the customer's mill. Microbial content is currently often a part of specification of the latex at paper or board mill.