I bring this up mainly because I've had some sinus congestion while in the darkroom and some lightheadedness and occasionally a headache. I haven't been all that careful when touching chemicals, so I hope I don't gets brain tumor or something next year.
Good ventilation is mandatory. Chemical exposure can be very severe if the entry point is inhalation. 6 chemists at BP Amoco contracted fatal brain tumors merely for breathing in cyclohexane, a common laboratory solvent.
I bring this up mainly because I've had some sinus congestion while in the darkroom and some lightheadedness and occasionally a headache. I haven't been all that careful when touching chemicals, so I hope I don't gets brain tumor or something next year.
Woah...
That's comforting.
Never a good sign, just get a face mask for chemicals from B&H, it won't totally prevent it, but will reduce your exposure to the chemicals.
It's the toners that might give you a brain tumor. Those I wouldn't use in your apartment, but that's my choice and I'm super extra careful.
It's the toners that might give you a brain tumor. Those I wouldn't use in your apartment, but that's my choice and I'm super extra careful.
Umm... yeah... agree strongly...
Mr. McCurry's comments, and these sorts of fear-inducing threads that they spawn, scare me far more than the common sense use of benign darkroom chemistry that I've engaged in for over 40 years.
Geez. Some of these chemicals you even eat on a regular basis. Did you know that sodium sulfite preserves your potato chips along with your D-76? Or that the vinegar on your salad can be twice the strength of your stop bath? Or for that matter that the dechlorinator used in the public swimming pools you dive into also fixes film and photo papers? And treats the water in which your tropical fish* permanently live?
I realize that there are always exceptions to the rules. And that by nature the exceptions are more likely to speak up. But that doesn't make them any less the exceptions. Or the rules any less the rules.
Sadly, the overwhelming fear of everything by everyone these days has reached such a fever pitch that sometimes when I explain to people that they can't immediately see the photo I just took, that I will instead need to first develop it in an old fashioned chemical darkroom, they look back at me as if I had just told them I was going to be munching on plutonium.
Ken
* Probably the most delicate damned life forms in all of Creation.
This is the type of comment that demands an explanation: which toners, from what? Cite your evidence, please.
Yea, I'll be avoiding the toners then. I'm wondering if there is a specific recommendation for home darkroom use on Ilford's website, or elsewhere. I'll have to do some research.
I have never used uranium toner, and don't know about any health considerations involved .....
But I do know that there is nothing in the Material Safety Data Sheet for the most common toners (selenium and sepia) that would indicate in any way that they would cause brain tumours. With respect to the Kodak versions, If you read the section of the MSDS that always deals with cancer risks, all the references say something like "No component of this product present at levels greater than or equal to 0.1% is identified as a known or anticipated carcinogen"
The active ingredient in selenium toners is found in anti-dandruff shampoos.
All of these chemicals require reasonable care. In particular, you don't want to:
a) drink or eat them,
b) breathe in any quantity of any powders;
c) breathe in any more than incidental amounts of the vapours, and then only in conjunction with lots of fresh air;
d) allow quantities of some of the liquids to be absorbed through your skin.
For most people, it doesn't hurt to get some of them on your hands, if you rinse them off regularly. But sensitivity is a possibility, so gloves are a good idea.
If you have good ventilation, and you use reasonable procedures, and still find it necessary to wear a breathing mask in a standard black and white darkroom, I would seriously suggest that you stop darkroom work, because you are one of the rare group who is hyper-sensitive to chemicals which do not bother the vast majority of people.
Ok, so that being said, what constitutes proper ventilation? I'm one of these paranoid people that clean their bathroom with baking soda, to avoid carcinagenic cleaning products, so I'm paranoid!
In a Steve McCurry interview I was reading, he said, ''we don't have to breath all those chemicals," as an advantage of digital over film. It got me to thinking: are there any known or documented health risks from exposure to the chemicals used in analogue photography? Topically or airborne, ect.
Just curious...
Mark
Okay:
Ilford's website has some materials for you: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/healthandsafety/intro.asp and http://www.ilfordphoto.com/applications/page.asp?n=43
As does Kodak: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/corp/environment/kes/pubs/pdfs/j300.pdf and
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/ak3/ak3.pdf
As Ilford says in one of those links: "Photographic chemicals are not hazardous when used correctly and when basic rules of common sense are observed."
Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) is just about as likely to cause you harm as most of the chemicals we use in darkrooms - at least in the concentrations we use.
Thread blocked for reason of absurdity.
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