Oxygen absorbers and sugar

[arbilad]

I'd been taught when canning sugar earlier that you don't use oxygen absorbers with sugar because it's unnecessary; anything that would be killed by the lack of oxygen would also be killed by the sugar. At our last ward canning assignment, someone brought sugar and I expressed my belief that oxygen absorbers were unnecessary with sugar. The ward canning specialist went ahead and threw them in anyway.
So, to clear that up for the forthcoming canning of sugar in our ward, I sent an email to the cannery and asked if oxygen absorbers are necessary with sugar. The person who responded said to please not use them with sugar because then the sugar will harden over time.
Who's correct?

[LEVE]

Don't use 'em, it does harden the sugar into bricks! (http://www.survival-training.info/DryPackFoodStorageUsingPETE.pdf)

[arbilad]

Ok, I see where it says don't use them, but I don't see a reason why.

[Toni]

Exactly! It isn't that sugar kills what oxygen absorbers do. It's that sugar will get hard as a rock. A lady in our ward put oxygen absorbers in her sugar and it got hard as a rock. It was very difficult to use!

[mirkwood]

I have always been told you can just store in the bags and as long as it does not get wet you are good.