A Darkroom Based Skin Reaction - Allergies? Chemicals?

[Gerald C Koch]

My allergy to color developing agents went far beyond mere itching. I would get blisters the size of peas with intense itching. Once I stopped color printing the problem went away.

 

[AgX]

In 52 years in the darkroom, with hands routinely in chemicals, I have NEVER experienced any problems.

As a practicing, graduate degreed chemist, it is beyond appalling to see people use chemicals with such recklessness as above.

RattyMouse, You seem quite young. Decades ago the general mentality on occupational hygiene was quite different.

 

[MartinP]

RattyMouse, You seem quite young. Decades ago the general mentality on occupational hygiene was quite different.

The common practice with chemical hygiene may have been different, but the human animals involved were pretty much the same and these days there are fewer deaths and injuries. If it is felt necessary to swim in metol solutions to develop paper then there will be legislation and no more metol developers, no more bleaches or toners etc.

Prudent and simple chemistry practice does not detract from the hobby. Most casual hobbyists will be incapable of identifying specific hazards, so 'safe' handling for all materials is a simple and practical solution. This also compensates for the ignorant majority of the population who believe "chemicals" = "certain and painful death", where "chemicals" includes distilled-water and NaCl . . .

 

[Pat Erson]

Can this metol problem be reversed with a prolonged stay out of the lab to let the body rest so to speak.
I heard Robert Doisneau pushed his luck after a first bout of "darkroom itch" and he ended up with a permanent non-reversible alergy that made him stop all darkroom activities.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Hard to say. I suspect that once you've become sensitive to something, it stays that way, or at least starts again much more readily. Like poison oak.
It helps to be nitpicky about keeping surfaces and doorknobs etc uncontaminated, as well as the insides of any rubber gloves that are not disposed
each session. Good darkroom habits. I habitually rinse even disposable gloves off when wearing them to avoid transfer of developer or fixer residue
where I don't want it. I'm quite aware that "artistes" tend to have a cavalier attitude about chemicals. That's why a number of them I've known over
the years are now either horribly ill or outright dead. Metol doesn't fall into that category, and is generally just a predictable dermatological nuisance easily controlled with common sense darkroom habits, including gloves. But there are substitute developer formulas if necessary.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Can this metol problem be reversed with a prolonged stay out of the lab to let the body rest so to speak.
I heard Robert Doisneau pushed his luck after a first bout of "darkroom itch" and he ended up with a permanent non-reversible alergy that made him stop all darkroom activities.

Once a person develops an allergic reaction they are permanently effected. There are desensitization techniques that are used which may or may not reduce the sensitivity to an acceptable level. Sensitivity will not go away just from avoiding the agent for a few months. Then too there is the problem of cross sensitivity where the person develops allergies to seemingly unrelated substances. For example a person who develops a reaction to metol could be cross sensitized to various NSAIDS like Tylenol or aspirin that have similar structures.[/U][/U]

 

[Fluidphoto]

I remember a Prof telling me that people could get sensitized to Metol and that it happened fairly often. In the 20+ years since I've never had a problem with it but I did become sensitized to Selenium toner and would break out all over in what I thought was chicken pox. Nitrile gloves and better ventilation makes a world of difference.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

At one time it was believed that traces of phenylenediamine used in the manufacture of metol caused the problem. However metol is now made using a difference starting material and still causes problems. So it appears that the culprit is the metol itself and not some impurity.

Funny thing about allergies one can go for years without any reaction to a particular substance and suddenly over-night develop a severe allergy. This why I constantly try to discourage people from using phenylenediame. This chemical has the highest level of problems for any of the commonly used developing agents. I usually get one or more posts to the effect "I have been using phenylenediamine based developers for X number of years without a problem." Well a problem can start at any time. These people are tempting fate with their actions.

In my case I developed an allergy to CD-2. This has caused me to completely avoid color processing and color photography in geeneral. I worry about traces of color developing agents present in color negatives.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I suspect my color allergy is related to amines present in the industrial colorants I once worked with, and now present in small quantities in RA4 chem. No effect for a few days, then I get respiratory irritation even using a fume hood or fancy respirator, even around utterly miniscule quantities. This mandates that I make a very limited number of prints per week, as well as having designed my own portable 30x40 drum processor. I obviously load the exposed print while in the darkroom, but then process it outdoors on my portable cart during mild weather, and even mix the chem with extra caution, and do the preliminary wash cycles outside too, to purge the drum well. Seems to work.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I suspect my color allergy is related to amines present in the industrial colorants I once worked with, and now present in small quantities in RA4 chem. No effect for a few days, then I get respiratory irritation even using a fume hood or fancy respirator, even around utterly miniscule quantities. This mandates that I make a very limited number of prints per week, as well as having designed my own portable 30x40 drum processor. I obviously load the exposed print while in the darkroom, but then process it outdoors on my portable cart during mild weather, and even mix the chem with extra caution, and do the preliminary wash cycles outside too, to purge the drum well. Seems to work.

 

[RattyMouse]

RattyMouse, You seem quite young. Decades ago the general mentality on occupational hygiene was quite different.

If by young, you mean nearly 50 years old then you are right.

Yes, long ago people had no clue about the dangers of chemcials.