Marian:
The short answer is that storage in a wooden cabinet will
inevitably degrade any media, including slides. Consideration of long-term
storage requires archival storage materials in all cases.
That doesn't mean the case can't be used for short term sorting,
display or other uses. In the short term, exposure to light is far more
deleterious to transparencies than short-term exposure to off-gassing from
wooden containers.
Slides will inevitably fade and discolor with time. The more we can
do to limit exposure of photographic media to light, off-gassing and other
environmental factors, the longer our media will survive.
Michael A. Lewis
Archaeology Collections Manager
University of Alaska Museum