I still have my Canon AE-1 Program SLR camera that I bought in the mid 80's.
I have lens and cases I bought from a friend a few years later.

The foam in the lens cases is turning basically into powder. Anyone else have this problem? I have not had the lens in the cases since I bought them.

I have found a lot of old foam material that has pulverized. I have some Sonex acoustic treatment used for sound deadening that turns to powder as soon as it's touched, and the foam padding under a carpet also had completely deteriorated, revealed when we were pulling up the carpet. The old manufacturing processes must not have added any stabilizing agents. I wonder if newer foam product also does this in time. Maybe that's why they were putting Formaldehyde in the stuff!

Formaldehyde????!!!
Yeah what an unpleasant thought.

I suppose digging it out and getting new foam would be one solution.

thanks Chuck!

You guys are talking about polyurethane (PU) foams, and the problem is extremely widespread - even extending to non-foam products, like boot soles. I don't know if effective stabilizers are being used or not today. Some of PU foams don't turn to dust - they turn to "tar." That's a real mess to clean up.

There is no reason to be concerned about formaldehyde in PU's. If PU's break down, it's into an isocynate, which is much more toxic than formaldehyde.

The solution to urethane foam is not to use it. You can buy polyethylene or polypropylene foam from many sources, and some businesses will even cut it to your requirements. A hot wire cutter will do a better a job than a knife, but some knife setups do a pretty neat job.