Kodak Film Fixer got on pots and pan, when doing home developing. how should I clean this to use for food consumption?

I just checked the Safety Data Sheet for Ilford Rapid Fixer. I can't remember looking up any other photo chemical with as few hazard warnings. (The Freestyle web site is the best source of Safety Data Sheets I've found for photo chemicals.)

Of course the SDS does not apply to used fixer. I do drop off a gallon jug of used fixer at the local household hazardous waste disposal site every year or so.

MattKing said:

The chemicals in fixer are also used in fertilizer and swimming pools.
Most of the film developing equipment in the world is made out of metal - primarily stainless steel I would think..
If the pots and pans were stainless steel, go get them out of the garbage and just clean them reasonably thoroughly.
If they are something like an old, highly seasoned cast iron frying pan, I'd be worried about getting fixer into the seasoning, but otherwise that pan should also be fine if thoroughly cleaned (and re-seasoned, of course).
Teflon or other non-stick coatings - who knows?
If you are going to use your kitchen - I do - just know that you need to set it up to make cleaning up afterwards easy. Leaving food preparation stuff around while you work there makes that really difficult.
Ingesting black and white film development or paper development chemicals is not a very good idea. But those chemicals are of similar toxicity as a lot of household chemicals, including many that are used to clean kitchens.
I would be a lot more worried about spilling dishwasher detergent on my pots and pans than I would about spilling fixer on my pots and pans.

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Wot he sez:

I scrub the sink with BarKeepers Friend after I have used photo chemicals in the sink. Just give the pots a good scrubbing.

Marcelo Paniagua said:

Good thought about heat and chemicals. Heat do some crazy things to chemicals that otherwise would be harmless.

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Yep. Heating coffee or bacon too much produces acrylamides, a known carcinogen, which is why every cup of coffee in California has a Proposition 65 warning label.

Of course, so do hammers.

And you'd need to drink a couple hundred gallons of coffee a day to be at risk (and you'd have more serious issues then anyway){Moderator's edit}.

And don't eat your hammer, it might be bad for you.

Most chemicals used in regular photo processing are very water-soluble, so if the surface is not absorbent, a thorough rinsing and then washing and rinsing should be OK. If the fixer was in contact with a seasoned pan or the pan is made of or coated with a material that might react with the fixer, I would be very hesitant to continue to use it for food preparation. I personally would rather be on the safe side and not reuse the pan for food.

Safety data sheets for all the Ilford products are available here:
https://www.ilfordphoto.com/health-and-safety/safety-data-sheets/english-australian-msds/

In my practical experience, fixer washes quite easily off smooth surfaces - unless it has been allowed to dry, when it seems impossible to shift. However, it sticks rather well to textured surfaces like human skin and wood. So in a darkroom, hands can be a significant source of contamination. Smell is the best warning: you quickly learn to recognise the smell of fixer on your hands. For the same reason I've never understood why some people favour wooden tongs.

mshchem said:

Next time dump it in a toilet or even better find a minilab that will take it.

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As has been stated above, the dissolved silver kills aquatic organisms and microorganisms including those in septic tanks. If you only chuck an occasional developing tank full, the consequences will of course be trivial, but bear it in mind if you scale up.

When I was a kid venturing into photography, my only option was to develop films at the kitchen sink. My mother ruled the kitchen absolutely, so this was a major concession. When I had finished, she returned to her Empire and blitzed everything with a foul preparation called Jeyes Fluid, which was supposed to kill every microorganism known to man and otherwise. I could never persuade her that the JF was infinitely more of a concern.

Hmm, "don't ever cook with those pots again?"

Probably the safest bet is to just burn the house down. You can't be too careful!

grat said:

If I posted "photochemicals can kill you" and "camera lenses are radioactive, you'll die!", you would quite rightly take exception (I hope). Both statements have elements of truth, but by no means do they encapsulate a whole truth,

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Well the Thorium lenses problem does rear its ugly head now and again on Photrio and I'm still not sure we have a general consensus on that either.

In my late teens whenever one of our group of males made a limp joke we'd all point our luminous watch dials at his vital region as a sign of our discontent. For all I know those subject to this suffered with sterility later in life but I cannot find out as I have long since lost all contact with my mates of those days.

I never suffered that fate simply by making sure all my jokes were mirth making. You can't take any chances, can you?

pentaxuser

M Carter said:

Hmm, "don't ever cook with those pots again?"

Probably the safest bet is to just burn the house down. You can't be too careful!

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Oh yes, that would take care of it.