Precautions when mixing and using Pyrocat-HD

Hi All,

In my 8x10 adventure I've decided to try pcat-HD, and order some from PF. Since I'm overseas I thought I'd save on shipping by getting the dry mix, but then started panicking when I read some threads on its toxicuty. So I read Sandy King's artilce and saw he reccomends just mixing it outside as a precaution. I'm curious what users of pcat who mix from dry chems are doing and what are you basing your decisions on. Also, when using it in darkroom, is ventilation essential, or are gloves enough? IOW, does the catechin release anything in dissolved form that can be harmful? Thanks in advance,

GB

I've been using the Bostick & Sullivan dry Pcat mix, which comes in bottles. All you have to do is add water and stir until the chemistry is dissolved. I would follow Sandy's advice if mixing from dry powdered chemicals, just to be safe. Once it is in liquid form, it is pretty harmless unless you drink it or soak your hands in it. Normal working strength dilutions are so minimal in concentration that you have little to worry about. I normally run my film at 1:1:100. If you are tray processing, I would use gloves.

I mix all powders so that the inevitable dust is sucked away from my face. It's just a basic precaution, not just with pyrocatechol. Usually, that involves opening a window and mixing it on the window sill as the breeze blows through the house and out the window. I also wear gloves while mixing as some chemical dust usually ends up on the hands. You could wear a mask, but I don't bother as long as the breeze is blowing strongly enough.

If tray developing film, I would definitely want to use gloves. I won't intentionally put my hands in *any* processing chemical and will rinse off any splashes that do occur immediately.

Bob.

I guess I'm a dead man walking. I have been violating these rules since I was 12 years old. That was 68 years ago. How much longer have I got to live? You can take that "got" two ways. My doctor said I would live to be a hundred. I said "OH, NO."

Please don't take me too seriously on this subject. I have been careful, just not in conventional ways. Almost anything we get on our hands in the darkroom can be washed off immediately without damage. Things to be more careful of are those which generate noxious fumes. These can be not only dry chemicals being dissolved, but mixtures of solutions of chemicals.

After a year of working with this formula I decided not to anymore. (1) I never was able to get what I really wanted tonally with PtPd using TMY and Pcat-HD and (2) and most important to this thread, repeated exposure to my hands gave me a little rash on my fingers....just little white bumps. If I used gloves, this wouldn't have been an issue, of course, but given that I just wasn't getting what I wanted tonally, it was easier to just stop using it.

For anyone that cares, I've gone full circle and am getting what I want from HP5 8x10, in HC110, dil B, 8.5 minutes at 68, in a Jobo tube on a Beseler base.