Concerned About Strong Odor Coming From Old Album Pages.

Acetic acid has a small of it's own, but I can understand why you say "the closest" smell is vinegar.

I've had a couple of old albums from ebay in the past and the first thing, without exception, is to dispose of the entire album, stock pages and all.

I've tried three things seperatly:

1. Tons of baking power - does work for certain odors, and does, for the most part, at least reduce odors. Consider placing a whole bed of powder on the bottom of a large sealed plastic hobby box) then a sheet of acid free printer paper on which you lay out the stamps.

2. I've similarly tried using smaller carbon filters and placing the stamps on the filters. Again, works for some odors, or at least reduces them. Air movement helps with carbon materials.

3. I've similarly tried using an ionized air device with, again, mixed results.

What worked best, took the longest and is somewhat involved was all three. The bed of baking powder, printer paper and stamps - but I lined the box with carbon filters and lightly blew ionized air through the box (required two holes cut into the box.)

Your most notable improvement is to first dispose of the album and the pages then leaving the stamps out in room air for a few days at least. If that doesn't work go ahead and use ionized air over their tops, and the box routines as last.

I also had a friend buy from someone from ebay from Florida. The pages were stained brown around the edges; either from acetic acid, vinegar, or too much sun. I declined when he offered to sell his duplicate pages to me.
Smoke sell is a different issue. I purchased a new album online from a smoker. Air freshener works best to clear the smell and fumigate the room!

Your options:
1. Remove stamps and throw away pages
2. Put whatever you want de-odorized into a large plastic box with a sealable lid. But first fill the bottom with an inch or so of baking soda (as mentioned above). It helps if you first put in a couple of blocks of wood (or similar) to lay your open album on just above the baking soda. Leave for a week (or weeks).
3. You can also spray into the box some Lysol or Febreze style odor killer/air freshener. It's best if you crumple up lots of paper towels and soak them with the spray. Put around the album.
4. Carbon helps but air has to be passed through it and that requires cutting holes in the box, etc.
5. Removing mildew smell can be accomplished by laying an album open in the sun for many hours. It kills the mildew and the smell. Be careful NOT to open to a page with valuable stamps on it!

Vinegar is supposed to be a good deodorizer for cigarette smoke smell. You obviously don't want to put the stamps IN the vinegar, but maybe putting them on top of a bowl of vinegar on some kind of mesh might do the trick.