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States ration birth, marriage, death certificates after paper company suddenly closes
WASHINGTON – Someone call Dunder Mifflin: Several states are reporting a paper crisis, after an Ohio company that produces highly specialized paper for vital records closed without warning.
California has been hit the hardest by the shortage, and several counties are now being forced to ration birth, marriage and death certificates
In California, the only other company that can meet its needs, under state law, is in Canada. Officials say it would likely take months for Canadian Bank Note Co. to get up to speed with the state’s paper needs – but that’s only after a contract is signed. In the interim, counties are left finding short-term solutions for the growing backlog.
WASHINGTON – Someone call Dunder Mifflin: Several states are reporting a paper crisis, after an Ohio company that produces highly specialized paper for vital records closed without warning.
California has been hit the hardest by the shortage, and several counties are now being forced to ration birth, marriage and death certificates
In California, the only other company that can meet its needs, under state law, is in Canada. Officials say it would likely take months for Canadian Bank Note Co. to get up to speed with the state’s paper needs – but that’s only after a contract is signed. In the interim, counties are left finding short-term solutions for the growing backlog.
Now, this might not sound like an Earth-shattering news story, but the consequences of hard-to-acquire official birth, marriage, and death documents could pose widespread difficulties. Schools must have an authorized copy of a child's birth certificate for admission and enrollment. Young marrieds, when acquiring credit cards, car loans, and mortgages, must prove they are actually married. Families need as many as ten copies of death certificates when filing probate cases.
California, for example, has limited families to five documents. Not enough to register Granddad's will.
The larger concern is that as electronic documents become more commonplace, the need for paper suppliers, ink manufacturers, file management firms, and the like grows less all the time. Electronic records are convenient, easily stored, and cheap to produce. But cheap to reproduce in hardcopy form?
Aye, there's the rub. If these companies continue to go out of business, we are then at the mercy of the computer hackers and to possible government manipulation. We won't be able to prove who we are, that we're married, or even that we're dead.