Photo Flow no more??

I live in a desert. All dust is created somewhere near here and my negatives attract it like a dog to a fire plug! So I have done the normal things: air purifier, humidifier etc and it is still a huge project to keep four glass surfaces and two negative surfaces perfectly clean. A friend of mine owns and runs a local minilab and there is this stuff he puts in the stabalizer called

Banstatic Plus.

It is sort of a photoflow with anti static built in. I tried it and it works great. It almost seems to leave a shiny hard coating on my negs that repel dust. OK - so it has to be bad right?? The ingredients listed are isopropanol, water and a "Cationic Anti-Static agent" So - is this too good to be true? Has anyone heard that it is bad for B&W negs? It seems to get a pass from all the minilab operators but I really don't think they care that much about archivability. I like how it works. Frank

The ingredients that you list are all evaporative (water and alcohol) with the possible exception of the "cationic anti-static" material. The cationic designation refers to the atomic electrical potential of the material and is one choice of materials that are classified anionic, cationic, and non-ionic. It may be fully proprietary or it may be obtained by the manufacturer of the product in question on the open source market. I wonder what would happen if you wrote to the manufacturer and told them that you required MSDS documentation? As I understand the OHSA regulations that exist, they would be required to provide this to you. I am afraid without the knowledge of the actual chemical composition that I could not make a determination of the possible non-archival status of this product.

Here is the MSDS off the web page - a link to a pdf file from my web server - I like how they listed the ph as 6-8 --- wow! talk about specific! I don't know if there is much to learn from it but if you are willing to take a stab at it - Thanks

http://www.hovation.com/assets/fujimsds_t=...D12005EEEF9.pdf

-Frank

Hmmm.
I certainly can't determine the basis of the product other then the water and alcohol. However if I had serious questions, I would contact the manufacturer.

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The detergent Tide was developed as an anti static chemical during I think WWII. It was only found to be good as a detergent when some guy accidently got a bunch of water into a jug of the stuff.

I'll bet if you used a couple of drops of liquid Tide in a tank of water you would have something just as effective. And a lot cheaper to boot.

Frank as usual the MSDS does not tell you much about propietary components. This is typical of the manufacturers who are by law required to put out an MSDS but find ways to be as uninformative as they can. The way to go about it is to call the company and tell them you want the chemical name for disposal purposes.
I used to work for a haz waste disposal company and was in charge of listing the components for disposal. They will give some run around and try to brow beat you into accepting their descrption. All you have to tell them is you will refer them to the EPA for refusing to help you dispose of the material porperly and you will be suprised how fastthey tell you the name.

Also tell them you dont want the concetration, that your intention is not to duplicate the formula but to complay with local environmental laws.

A cationic antistatic agent could be anything, for all we kow is soften water...lol...

Well, like photoflow - this stuff is a drop or two in the wash tank. It is certainly already on any C41 negs I have. Fuji says their process (it is part of their minilab regiment) is good for 80 years ???? yeh, right. It does leave a nice shine on the negs and resists spots much better than photoflow so .... I'll check myself in the dark from time to time and let you know if I glow. I think minilab operators drink this stuff with orange juice. Thanks for all the insight! - Frank

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