Bathroom Darkroom Safety Advice

I have recently moved, and have been setting up my darkroom in the upstairs hall bathroom (kids bathroom) which is a full bath with a double vanity sink with OK counter space. The whole setup has to be "pack it in, pack it out" and I have come up with some solutions that I am pretty happy with. I've set up one largish print drying screen that fits into place above the shower/bath, which gives me enough real estate for 10-12 8x10s. I found a tool cart at home depot that perfectly fits the baseboard of my enlarger, and has loads of drawer space for the dry side items. I can remove both of these and store them in the guest room. I'll try to add some pictures to the darkroom portraits thread next time I set it up.

I just had my first session last night, and it went OK, but I have some questions about the wet side. After I was done, I cleaned up the counters and sinks, first wiping up splashes/drips, and then going over the whole thing twice with some all purpose counter cleaning spray. Should I be at all concerned about chemical residue, given that my children use/will use this bathroom? The sinks are porcelain/stainless and the counter surface is painted with some kind of waterproof paint. I figure that any residue would be effectively cleaned up, however it still gave me pause when I cleaned up and then put my 3 year old daughter's toothbrush back in place. I did previously decide to ditch the selenium toner with this darkroom setup, and am only using the usual suite of paper/film developers (HC-110, D-76, Rodinal, Dektol), stop bath, rapid fix, and HCA.

Following on this, would I be better off setting up on boards over top of the bathtub instead of on the sinks? I hadn't really considered it because the counter is at a convenient height (even if the sinks are small and shallow). The kids obviously bathe there, so again I would have to clean it well.

After a good cleaning, does it even matter, from a safety perspective? Are there any kind of cleaners that might be recommended for this? I know the normal chemicals we use are not that harmful even at working strength, however, as I said, the toothbrush gave me pause. I know Ansel used his bare fingers as tongs for his whole life, so perhaps I'm just looking for reassurance from those more experienced than I.

You and your family's health and safety is the most important. I think setting up a board is a good idea, but you'll have to bend over more to process your prints. You also set up a wash tray towards the bathtub faucet. As for spills, I'd clean up any spills ASAP. I live in a 2 bath house and my wife has her own and I have my own. I try to be considerate of her by not using her bathroom to process prints or film. I processed film a week ago in my bathroom and I spilled fixer on my vanity. I wiped it up ASAP, but it took days to get the smell out of my bathroom. As for your safety when you print, keeping fresh air circulating is important. If you have a bath fan, I'd keep it on. One thing to keep in mind that some exhaust fans will leak light. Keep it safe and you'll have many years of printing joy in your darkroom. cheers!

I'd look at reducing the drips and spillage first. If you have space, put your trays in a larger tray, or make a board with a sealed rim. Use absorbent material (newsprint is good) to capture spills and reduce the contamination or surfaces. The less contamination you cause, the better your clean-up will be

I used to use a board over the bath for years. I put panels at each end to lift it up to working height. Some hinges and locking braces will let you collapse it if necessary. Again, a small anti-spill rim on the edges is good, and seal it down. My last one was made from a sheet of thin (<0.25 inch) plywood, with some 1x1" battens for stiffening. Screwed together, and several coats of exterior grade varnish. This was light, and strong enough to hold all the trays I could get on it.

There is probably more risk coming from your every day cleaners than there is from the photographic chemicals.
I'd move the toothbrushes out during your session, but other than hat a good wipe down should do it.
If you use the darkroom regularly, your bathroom may end up being cleaned more frequently than it is now!
For the tub, I use two cut-to-size (at Home Depot) wire shelves separated by three plastic bins. The lower shelf sits on the rim of the tub, while the top shelf sits on the three bins.
Here is a photo that shows one of the bins with my fixer tray above it and my top wash tray on the bottom shelf under the faucet. My other wash tray rests on the bottom of the tub.
The water flow is turned up for the photo. The stop bath and developer trays are to the right, above the other two bins (and out of the photo.
Those trays are Paterson 12x16 trays with an 11x14 tray inside - cuts down on drips.

I'd worry maybe more about the electrical risk. Make sure you connect electrical stuff (enlarger, red lighting, etc...) to a circuit that has a low-amp differentiial circuit breaker (30mA?). Maybe that's already the case, but when was was the last time you pressed that tiny Test button?

According to material published by Ilford darkroom chemicals, especially some developers, are highly toxic to some aquatic critters, however regarding human exposure to black and white darkroom chemistry common sense says there is nothing that is toxic in small quantities or the stuff wouldn't be permitted for retail sale. Here are their recommendations regarding safety https://www.ilfordphoto.com/health-and-safety

Toxicity is related to dose and dose intervals. Small doses spread out over time matter less than small doses repeated frequently which means exposure risks are highest for you and much lower for the rest of the family.

One of the difficulties is some of the spills are invisible to you and the family, and may be overlooked allowing contamination to occur undetected. I agree with suggestions to create "sink" type arrangements to try and stop drips splashes and spills reaching the regular bathroom surfaces.

It might also be a good idea to explain to the kids that darkroom chemicals are hazardous and that if pop sometimes gets some on his skin he washes it off again PDQ.

I had a setup similar to grahamp's (above) for years in my apartment, and it worked great. Raised edge around the board to help spills from going astray and a drain hole at one end above the bathtub drain made it easy to wash it out effectively. Multiple coats of varnish and caulking in all corners kept it in good shape. Wiping up spills immediately and rinsing your hands before touching things (especially film and paper) helps to prevent cross-contamination. I hope I'm not the only one who has developed a print, only to discover a thumbprint-shaped stain in the corner .

I don't use a lot of cleaners, but give all surfaces a good wipe-down after printing sessions with clean damp sponges, frequently rinsed. If I was doing frequent printing sessions, my bathroom was always clean as a result. Dust was hardly ever an issue.

My understanding is most photo chemicals are highly water-soluble and easy to clean up. In a bathroom I would be concerned with chemicals getting absorbed by grout and other surfaces that are not sealed or nonporous. Also, fix is something you really need to dispose of properly. For the rest, you might want to consider using the Eco Pro line of chemicals: https://www.digitaltruth.com/products/ecopro.php

If you seal the grout (and don't eat in the bathroom ) most mail stream commercial products are quite safe. Fixer and Blix should have silver removed before going to the sewer.

I set up a board because the counter is marble and I do not want anything acid etching it. Also using a board means that when I clean the counter well I can count on the fact that I have left no photochemical residue.

MattKing said:

There is probably more risk coming from your every day cleaners than there is from the photographic chemicals.
I'd move the toothbrushes out during your session, but other than hat a good wipe down should do it.
If you use the darkroom regularly, your bathroom may end up being cleaned more frequently than it is now!
For the tub, I use two cut-to-size (at Home Depot) wire shelves separated by three plastic bins. The lower shelf sits on the rim of the tub, while the top shelf sits on the three bins.
Here is a photo that shows one of the bins with my fixer tray above it and my top wash tray on the bottom shelf under the faucet. My other wash tray rests on the bottom of the tub.
The water flow is turned up for the photo. The stop bath and developer trays are to the right, above the other two bins (and out of the photo.
Those trays are Paterson 12x16 trays with an 11x14 tray inside - cuts down on drips.

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This is brilliant!

Thank you for the advice. It is really amazing how creative one can get in setting up a makeshift darkroom!

I will have to think about it some more. I think I may be a little more comfortable moving to the tub. I could rig up a makeshift sink (large board of some kind sealed with walls), and even run a tube down from that drain straight into the tub drain to avoid contamination. And this would be large enough to spread out a bit better, and might even allow me to print bigger (16x20) if I wanted to go that route. The toilet is right next to the tub, so at least I would have somewhere to sit! But imagine the jokes from my wife...

jack straw said:

and even run a tube down from that drain straight into the tub drain to avoid contamination.

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You are over thinking this.
At working strength, the chemicals for black and white printing are fairly benign. The stop bath is probably the strongest, and (in the Kodak version) is essentially dilute table vinegar.
A bathtub and shower surround is designed to be cleaned. You will accomplish what you need to by normal cleanup.
If you have a spill, it is best if it is over the tub. Even if it isn't, it is easy to clean up.

Yea, having the wet side confined to the tub will alleviate the worries about sink contamination. I was going to say the stock chemical storage poses the highest risk for kids...I have fond memories playing with DDT and Chlordane in my family garage.