To the editors:
Cecil Adams’s May 12, 1989 column discussing possible deterioration of compact discs reflects inadequate research and helps to perpetuate a new, high technology myth–the disintegrating disc.
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This whole business began when a Nimbus spokesman stated, about a year ago, that some CDs had shown fatal deterioration because of contamination by ink applied as part of the labeling process. Both serious audio magazines and Nimbus itself quickly concluded that a type of ink used in producing a small batch of CDs had indeed leaked through the lacquer covering with disastrous results. Following the publicizing of this incident, all CD manufacturers indicated that they had not used this type of ink nor would they in future.
You also state in your article that CDs may be ticking bombs because of the error correcting quality of CD players. I believe the data available indicates that defective CDs announce their problems with initial playings and badly produced CDs get neither better nor worse.
