.....I've been a chemist for 20 years...
If you are a chemist, why don't you read the MSDS for each of these products and draw your own conclusions? :confused:
Hmm... HC-110 is far more toxic than D76 and is far more dangerous in concentrate form. The possible benefit is that it may be easier to keep the small bottle of concentrate away from your children, compared to a gallon of stock solution.
Comparing photochemicals to household cleaning products is a bit like apples vs pears. Neither of them are particularly healthy if you drink or bathe in them. But cleaning products are generally not carcinogenic and are reasonably harmless to pour down the drain.
Again, XTOL will give you sharp negatives, with fine grain and good tonality. If stored properly it will keep as well as D76. It is relatively harmless. What's not to like?
Rattymouse, you're an OK guy over there in China. I enjoy seeing your name next to a post. Listen friend, I'm a printer. A printer of chemical company labels and welding supply labels. The only credibility I lay claim to in answering your questions is from a standpoint of a fellow who has to print text as long and tedious as War and Peace, on very small labels, concerning safety precautions. But that's the way law is.
The point is, that Eastman Kodak for instance, is bound by the same law as anybody else to have to print all that safety nonsense, if their chemistry was a nasty poison, do you see any print on the package like that? Just enjoy your photography, life is short.
Hmm... HC-110 is far more toxic than D76 and is far more dangerous in concentrate form. The possible benefit is that it may be easier to keep the small bottle of concentrate away from your children, compared to a gallon of stock solution.
Comparing photochemicals to household cleaning products is a bit like apples vs pears. Neither of them are particularly healthy if you drink or bathe in them. But cleaning products are generally not carcinogenic and are reasonably harmless to pour down the drain.
Again, XTOL will give you sharp negatives, with fine grain and good tonality. If stored properly it will keep as well as D76. It is relatively harmless. What's not to like?
Yes, the MSDS for both parts of XTOL read much better than for D-76 and HC-110. The only downside I can see to XTOL is that I have to get a 5 liter container to make the solution. I think 4 liters is as large as I have right now.
Borax is not available as a wash aid here any more, I need to buy it as a hazchm for photo use.
You are a parent concerned about risk to your children. As such, a balanced perspective might be helpful. The numerical probability of you, a chemist with 20 years' experience, spilling D-76, XTOL or any other developer in the house is miniscule compared to the certainty that they're inhaling Shanghai's "air" daily. I'd be much more worried about lung damage from that exposure than potential deleterious effects of photographic chemicals....I do think that fumes are a concern as well as spills. If, god forbid, a 1 gallon container of D-76 were to spill in my house, it would spread over an ENORMOUS amount of area. Area that my kids play in every day...
Hmm... HC-110 is far more toxic than D76 and is far more dangerous in concentrate form. It's actually poison. The possible benefit is that it may be easier to keep the small bottle of concentrate away from your children, compared to a gallon of stock solution.
Comparing photochemicals to household cleaning products is a bit like apples vs pears. Neither of them are particularly healthy if you drink or bathe in them. But cleaning products are generally not carcinogenic and are reasonably harmless to pour down the drain.
Again, XTOL will give you sharp negatives, with fine grain and good tonality. If stored properly it will keep as well as D76. It is relatively harmless. What's not to like?
There are more household cleaning products that are extremely toxic than there are developers as an example. Although both are toxic. I could compare Drano to Rodinal, both of which are acutely toxic and can destroy eye tissue almost instantly. I can compare two household products that when mixed generate a poison gas. No photo product does that. It can make smelly gases but not acutely poisonous gases, nor can photo products generate gas in huge volume.
I could go on, but I do think that you have overstated the safety of household products and understated the safety of photo processing products.
PE
Sometime in my lifetime, lawyers and politicians traded in the skull-and-crossbones
You are a parent concerned about risk to your children. As such, a balanced perspective might be helpful. The numerical probability of you, a chemist with 20 years' experience, spilling D-76, XTOL or any other developer in the house is miniscule compared to the certainty that they're inhaling Shanghai's "air" daily. I'd be much more worried about lung damage from that exposure than potential deleterious effects of photographic chemicals.
For what it's worth, I use XTOL. My tests of it at 1+3 dilution with Delta 100 sheets in a Jobo Expert drum showed higher film speed, greater sharpness and less grain than D-76/ID-11 1+3 when developed to the same contrast index. I store it as described in this post:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)
Keep the bottles in a secure, padded container and the risk of spillage would be almost zero.
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