Liford multigrade developer safe to use?

[Wayne]

No and I'll reply again. Read the posts already made on the subject. search the Forum, read the chemical datasheets, read the full MSDS.

You have to realise people here are beginning to get fed up with alarmist posts like "But since it concerns my future kids Id feel a bit bad using it". You also need to realise that children are far more in danger from household products, yes it's up to you to be aware and take due diligence.

The most dangerous chemical they'll come in contact with is water and a lot of it, but you die of dehydration if you don't get enough, die if you drink far too much, drown if you fall into it, break a limb if you slip when it's froze, get hypothermia or frostbite if you get caught out in the snow, get burnt if it forms steam, all if you don't take the right precautions. When you think like that it puts things in perspective.

Photography was once very dangerous and people died and still cpiuld but it's wet plate workers using cyanide and ether, early use of magnesium powder as flash powder, rather than normal film & print processing.

You need to read ALL the health and safety precautions needed for darkroom work, they are really just common sense rather than being alarmist.

Ian

I disagree again, I don't think what he said was alarmist at all. He expressed concern and wanted info for the benefit of his own future kids and that is not alarmist. Saying "this harmed my kids" or "this will harm your future kids" would be alarmist.

 

[Ian Grant]

I've seen plenty of people poisoned by art projects, or who have gotten cancer, even a few died from it. Don't take anything for granted. Read the MSDS sheets. Wear gloves and have adequate ventilation. Most common black and white "beginner" darkroom chemicals are quite mild; many color printing chemicals are not. And some alternative process ingredients are downright nasty. That being said, there are not only darkroom people in this world but lawyers and liability insurance companies. In other words, any supplier of such ingredients is stupid if
they don't supply the "fine print" label with the product.

The wife makes me put stuff o her hair (it's rude to ask why) every few weeks, it's old stuff school from Turkey and still has colour developing agents in it and is quite toxic. As photographers we are very careful not to have skin contact, yet she has large levels on hers scalp and people are know to react and die. One day I'll add some apha-nathol and her hair will go blue

The reality is that actually the photographic industry has a very high safety level, every day products like hair dyes don't (UK. EU,US) have banned colour developing agents from hair dyes) but some countries still use them and there's kitchen cleaning products that can blind you, and they carry no warnings.

Ian

 

[Truzi]

I once had a new hammer that came with a warning label. Don't use for this or that, do not strike this or that, do not strike hardened metals, etc. Paraphrased, the label could have read "Do not use this hammer." My lawn mower had a label that warned not to grab the deck while it was running.

Just follow the safety precautions and you will be fine. For fun, run around your home and read the warning labels on things you never thought about, you might be surprised, and you might be more careful in general.

 

[Xmas]

''Genetic defects'' and ''Suspected of causing cancer'' Thats what was what caught my attention on the back of my lifer multigrade paper developer, I was expecting the warning label to be the same as ID-11, But Thay were a bit more off putting. Is this just covering there ass, Or is there some thing especially toxic about lifords developer,
My darkroom has an extraction fan, I always ware gloves, But since it concerns my future kids Id feel a bit bad using it If I ware not sure its safe. So I continued using caffenol-c for the time been,
How long have they been manufacturing it?, And has there ever been a bad story about it?, Are there any safer paper developers?,

It should be the same...
ID-11 is an MQ
Multi grade is a PQ

The alerts are for the Q hydroquinine.

None of the cyclic organics are nice but gloves and a lab coat are ok.

If you have a septic tank and a well I'd not dump the used fixer or developer into drains, eg the silver is bad.

I process kneeling and leaning over edge of bath tub so any spillage is addressed by running water into bath.

The Mormons don't drink coffee, but are downwind of the nuclear test sites...

I use MICROPHEN a PQ developer in place of ID-11 as I have skin disorders already, and the metol might prompt but lots of people don't worry. Wash hands as normally with soap afterwards.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

When I first started mixing my own developers a decade ago after Agfa went belly up I started using AA developers mostly mixed with Phenidone and have continued to do so. At the time I remember people making a big deal out of Hydroquinone and as a result I have been averse to using it since then. Recently I was looking at prints and remarked that I liked the prints I made with Neutol WA the most from way back when. After a little research I realized it was silly to avoid HQ so I ordered some HQ for the first time a couple days ago. I can now go back to using Neutol WA or the Ilford equivalent and I am looking forward to it.

 

[seanE]

Lan, I think you might be taking things a bit to seriously, I'm not alarmed, Nor am I trying to alarm any one, It was just one of them throw a way comments, There really was nothing to it,
I really don't see why it would irritate you so much, Are you having marital problems? woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Its unusual for some one to be so up tight when a newbie says things you think are stupid.
By the way if I'm really getting on your wick, I'm sorry, :munch:But the angrier people get, The more annoying I become, Take that emoji for example, its just so enraging isn't it?
Just to put things in perspective, You could be in Palestine.

 

[seanE]

Actually, Before you reply you really need to watch this video in full.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92i5m3tV5XY&list=PLLQXve3_m_1Z55se7yXiCfg0mPKY5dvg9

 

[Ian Grant]

Lan, I think you might be taking things a bit to seriously, I'm not alarmed, Nor am I trying to alarm any one, It was just one of them throw a way comments, There really was nothing to it,
I really don't see why it would irritate you so much, Are you having marital problems? woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Its unusual for some one to be so up tight when a newbie says things you think are stupid.
By the way if I'm really getting on your wick, I'm sorry, :munch:But the angrier people get, The more annoying I become, Take that emoji for example, its just so enraging isn't it?
Just to put things in perspective, You could be in Palestine.

I just think there's a need for reality with health and safety. It was part of my job when I ran a laboratory and we had to have a full COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) manual that covered every chemical and the way we used them, and I prepared it. The chemicals used in a typical darkroom are relatively safe as long as you don't drink them, get them in the eyes etc some need more care than others, concentrated stop bath (acetic acid), Pyro developers containing Pyrogallol or Pyrocatechin for instnce. Like any chemical such as household bleach they should be stored preferably locked away from younger children.

It's this statement that is just so out of place "But since it concerns my future kids Id feel a bit bad using it" if there was an issue it would be spelt out in detail in the Developer's instructions.

You got the wrath of my ire purely because you made the most recent new thread on the subject, apologies.

Ian

 

[seanE]

I get it, I hate things being blown out of proportion as well, But you have to understand that statement was just a figure of speech, you know, one of then pointless things you say to make a post longer, and make it look like it was not written by a robot, I'm accustomed to the regular ''you may die'' and ''skin irritant'' warnings, but genetic mutations was some thing I associated with those ''ECO'' ''green'' nuclear reactors.

 

[NB23]

I once had my mouth full of Dektol. Tasted like fish.

I tried syphoning 5 litres of it into a bottle.

My kids look fine to me...

 

[jvo]

Karen and I were at Letchworth SP in N.Y. last fall, the California registered car parked next to us had a health warning sticker in the window, could be hazardous or cause death or some such crap, the owner said it was real.

ah, letchworth sp - "the grand canyon of the east" !!! definitely need a warning label about leaning over to far!!!

jvo