Looks to me like this only happens if the last word of the line is 
"emphasized" and larger font.

I'm using emacs 28, org 9.5.5

#+OPTIONS: author:nil
#+OPTIONS: toc:nil
#+OPTIONS: date:nil
#+OPTIONS: ^:nil

#+LaTeX_HEADER: \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
#+LaTeX_HEADER: \usepackage{libertine}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[margin=0.70in]{geometry}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{setspace}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{enumitem}
#+LaTeX_HEADER: \usepackage{endnotes}

#+ATTR_LATEX: :options [noitemsep, nolistsep]
#+ATTR_LATEX: :options frame=single,backgroundcolor=\color{lightgray}

* Database Retooling
** Mapping instructions
A feature (or is it a bug) of the current processing is the "look ahead" 
feature which
scans the _=MappingInstruction=_ table for instructions "related" to the 
one in hand.  Any
found are processed along with the instruction in hand.  It was found 
that looking ahead
when there /too many/ instruction became too expensive. To guard against 
that, "extra"
records are moved to _=MappingQueue=_ table (and back again) to keep 
_=MappingInstruction=_
under approximately 5000 records.  This to-and-fro happens on a five 
minute interval,
external to the =Resolve= application.