Contact dermatitis? On darkroom safety

[Sirius Glass]

Nitrile gloves are now so easy to buy and so inexpensive, it just makes sense to use them. And they are easier to use than tongs at times.

 

[VinceInMT]

The most strange case I know was an employer of my parents bakery that somehow developed an allergic reaction to wheat flavour after 20 years or so working there. It was a severe reaction involving difficult to breathe and social security services gave him a disability support pension until he found another job compatible with his condition.

Wow, I already had to give up coffee and, as a non-professional artisan baker, I’d sure hate to give that up too.

 

[Bill Burk]

I wouldn't like to find out if I have a tendency to develop contact dermatitis, so I always use nitrile gloves. They're very cheap, so why not?

I always use gloves of some type. They often get punctured so my hands get soaked in fix anyway.

The study compared latex and plastic gloves, concluding plastic are ineffective.

How do the glove choices we have now compare with the ones in the study? I can get blue nitrile and I like how vinyl are easy to put on and pull off. But latex, which they say is effective, can raise its own allergic reactions in some people.

I suppose it’s time to look for a pair of those heavy Kodak rubber gloves.

 

[Don_ih]

The gloves I have are chemical resistant, from an industrial supplier. I doubt anyone can find them on a shelf, anywhere. But those yellow kitchen gloves would come a close second and beat the hell out of those pointless tiny plastic, latex, or nitrile gloves. One pair of yellow kitchen gloves would last you years in a darkroom.

 

[bluechromis]

I know I always use the tongues. The only thing I put my fingers in is the photo-flo.
I have on my bookshelf the book: Overexposure - health hazards in photography by Susan D. Shaw and Monona Rossol.
I've never read it...

"I know I always use the tongues." That would not have occured to me.

 

[bluechromis]

I have heard a theory that it was actually impurities in Metol that were the worst allergens and that currently made Metol has less of them. That's not a reason not to be careful of exposure, of course.

 

[DREW WILEY]

All the yellow and blue kitchen gloves one can buy around here won't last a week. I'd rather have disposable nitrile. Even decent neoprene gloves are hard to find; they're all outsourced. One could deal with a serious lab or industrial safety supplier; but then things get expensive. Don't confuse nitrile gloves with vinyl. Many of them differ from medical grade only in not being sterile packaged, and they aren't fragile. I use thicker neoprene ones for numerous darkroom tasks, but thin nitrile for sheet film development where greater finger sensation is mandatory.

Allergens and sensitization is a very complex topic. My wife specialized in it for six years, and the same interdisciplinary clinic had four endocrinologists on staff. Then you've got related topics like environmental sensitivities and progressive toxins. Sodium sulfite is so innocuous that it's routinely used as a preservative in fast-food restaurant salads as well as most domestic wine. But there are tens of thousands of people in this country seriously allergic to it, including my own sister. A lettuce leaf with a bit of sodium sulfite on it, and it's an ambulance ride.

 

[Don_ih]

All the yellow and blue kitchen gloves one can buy around here won't last a week

I don't know what's sop special about where you are, but yellow kitchen gloves are longer and thicker than nitrile gloves, very resistant to getting pinholes (or other holes). Obviously don't buy them at the dollar store. Decent kitchen gloves would last for years in a darkroom.

All those other gloves roll up when you take them off. You may as well not wear them.

 

[DREW WILEY]

It's called the USA, Don. Just a handful of enterprises dominate the consumer glove market, and dictate where things are made and how they're sold; and they've obtained near monopolies. Lowest bidder rules. Even well-known US brand names have now been pirated to bait-and-switch outsourced product. It you want laboratory neoprene or other kinds of rubber gloves, that's how they're marketed and priced. One doesn't find them at consumer outlet. Every kind of "kitchen" glove I've seen was latex. Restaurant supply houses probably have good ones too, for dishwashers.

Argue if you must, but where I worked as a buyer, we bought thousands of pairs of work gloves at a time. If something had to be hazmat,military, or industrial spec, that was a whole different ballgame. But there were local specialty houses for those kinds of things, priced way too high for the general public. The tech industries deal with far nastier chemicals than we darkroom people do. We typically supplied them through our Govt and Industrial sales office rather than the retail store. I was involved with both.

And you're not doing anyone a favor by telling them they might as well not bother to wear disposable gloves. Tell that to your proctologist!

 

[Maris]

For black and white printing I deliberately don't wear gloves. After some earnest practice with tongs I never need to come in contact with chemistry.

The most seriously immediate route to poisoning is via inhalation followed by ingestion followed at quite a distance by skin contact. I use odourless chemistry so my darkroom has no acetic acid fumes, no sulfur dioxide fumes, and no ammonia fumes to inhale.

The last tray in my darkroom sink is plain water for hand rinsing. If I suspect I felt a drop of developer or fixer hit my hand I wash and towel dry immediately. If I wore gloves the reduced hand sensitivity might not register a tiny splash of fixer which could then be carried into the stock of printing paper and ruin expensive sheets with white spots.

Gloves carrying unnoticed chemistry can wreak havoc in a darkroom by contaminating "touch surfaces" such as light switches, water taps, chemistry stock bottles, doorknobs, enlarger controls, bench tops, clean tongs, and so on.
Tracing the source of room contamination and doing the subsequent clean up can be irksome.

 

[VinceInMT]

Gloves: Check
Respirator: Check
Face shield: Check

 

[DREW WILEY]

I've been tray processing sheet film with gloves for 45 years now - never any white spots! It's important to use non-powdered gloves. And "odorless" chemistry doesn't necessarily equate to safe chemicals. Same rules apply. And of course, one does not want to go around handling light switches and door knobs with either contaminated hands or contaminated gloves. But gloves rinse off much easier. Some solutions, once on the skin, require soap to remove. I learned that back in darkroom Kindergarten.

 

[MattKing]

All those other gloves roll up when you take them off. You may as well not wear them.

I agree with Don, if you are talking about dealing with highly toxic chemicals.
But if your goal is to minimize the amount and duration of contact with chemicals whose danger arises more from extensive and repeated contact - like most developers - then the nitrile gloves definitely do help.
They also permit reasonably impaired tactile sense and, as mentioned, they are much easier to effectively rinse off and dry then bare skin.

 

[Bill Burk]

Gloves: Check
Respirator: Check
Face shield: Check

View attachment 338726

Looks like water is the greatest hazard in your darkroom.

 

[albada]

The gloves I have are chemical resistant, from an industrial supplier. I doubt anyone can find them on a shelf, anywhere.

Can you tell us their brand name and model, if applicable? Grainger.com or Mcmaster.com might carry them.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I pull off nitrile gloves directly, I do not roll them up.

 

[Minox]

Never had need nor reason to use gloves when handling photo chemicals. Then again, I only process the film, no prints, so I guess I do not come in contact with large amounts of these substances. And anyways, I only use regular developers and fixers, nothing heavier than that. Been doing it for the last 20+ yrs, no issues, no allergies.

That said, I completely understand the need to protect oneself by whatever measures are there.

 

[albada]

When I pull off my nitrile gloves, they mostly reverse, inside-out. To reuse them, I poke the fingers back into them, and blow into them like a balloon, causing the fingers to pop out as they were originally.

 

[mshchem]

I developed a sensitivity to isocyanates used to make polyurethane foam insulation, if I was around the stuff without a respirator I would feel like I had ants crawling all over me.

I'm careful with darkroom chemistry but fortunately never had any problems. Never a good idea to NOT avoid contact, but I still get my hands in the stuff when printing. I use Ilford Bromophen, no metol. Just occurred to me that I haven't used metol developers for 15-20 years.

 

[koraks]

When I pull off my nitrile gloves, they mostly reverse, inside-out. To reuse them, I poke the fingers back into them, and blow into them like a balloon, causing the fingers to pop out as they were originally.

Exactly.

Nitrile gloves are quite effective when used properly. I vehemently disagree with the "might as well not use them at all" hyperbole. Bad advice! Better use nitrile gloves than latex, and better latex than nothing. Keep it sane, people.

 

[Anon Ymous]

@Bill Burk Not all nitrile gloves are made the same. I have used several and some were rather disappointing, being quite flimsy. The ones are use now, with which I am very pleased are the Aurelia Robust. This isn't their only offering, they have thinner, as well as thicker ones, but these are perfectly fine for me. They do last within sessions, although I don't dip them in trays full of chemicals.

 

[Ivo Stunga]

@albada - aren't you risking ingestion when blowing used gloves, possibly negating all the benefits/doing worse at the end?

 

[albada]

@albada - aren't you risking ingestion when blowing used gloves, possibly negating all the benefits/doing worse at the end?

There's almost no risk because:

• I rinse gloves after use (before removal), so there should be no chemicals on them.
• My lips only touch the original interior of a glove, and not the exterior which was exposed to chemicals.

 

[Ivo Stunga]

I rinse gloves after use (before removal), so there should be no chemicals on them

To my knowledge some will always remain, therefore multiple rinses might be required (therefore the multiple water changes when rising the Ilford way).

 

[koraks]

ALARP - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org