Safest darkroom techniques and gear?

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

I'll be getting into developing prints soon, once I get the associated stuff (I just have an enlarger right now), and I'm wondering about the safest tools, chemicals and techniques for this?
I've developed some roles of black and white film before with Xtol, Tetenal Odourless Stop Bath and Tetenal Superfix and had no problems with it before. But I presume stuff's a little different with trays of chemicals and everything for the prints, I'll be trying my best to get adequate ventilation since it'll most likely be set up in an old bathroom. Xtol's the safest developer I'd heard of but I didn’t think it worked for paper, and I guess I dunno anything about what's in the stop bath and fixer, so I'm sorta looking for some recommendations to do with all of this.
I probably sound a bit paranoid, but I was sick a fair bit as a kid and some simple stuff still messes me around so I figure better safe than sorry here, and my mum will kill me if I get sick

 

[Monophoto]

Fleath -

Being prudent and cautious is fine, but don't let the fear of darkroom chemicals become an impediment to doing creative darkroom work. There was a book that came out a few years ago that painted a pretty horrible picture of the health risks of photography. I believe that most people today understand that the author's main interest was in selling books and used sensationalism to achieve that goal.

There are two generic kinds of potential health problems associated with working in a darkroom. One is the possibility of allergic reactions. The most common allergic problem involves the developing agent metol. There are lots of developers that don't use metol, and there are lots of people who have allergies to metol who use it quite safely by wearing rubber gloves.

And interestingly enough, there are probably as many people who are allergic to the latex used to make rubber gloves or to the talc used to make them easy to put on as there are people who are allergic to metol. It's possible to buy nitrile gloves that don't irritate a latex allergy (and that are much easier to put on than latex), and its also possible to buy gloves that aren't powdered. So know your own limitations, and work around them.

The second set of problems involve chemicals that can lead to health concerns. These all involve prolonged exposure - typically over many years. The most common was mercury - mercury used to be used for negative intensification. It's no longer possible to buy mercury intensifier - although I suppose you could buy the raw chemicals and whip up a batch if you are so inclined - but a better solution is to understand the exposure and development process well enough that you don't need to intensify your negatives.

Today, the only chemical that even remotely has health-effect characteristics similar to mercury is selenium, and there's a lot of debate about exactly how dangerous selenium really is. There's no doubt that pure selenium metal is not good for you, but the versions of selenium that you would purchase as toners are probably not all that harmful. And it is a medical fact that the human body requires a small amount of selenium which you ordinarily get from some vegetables - or from health-food store supplements. Again, rubber gloves and reasonably precautions are the best advice.

As to the rest of darkroom chemistry - it's all pretty much innocuous.

 

[Sjixxxy]

I like Ethol LPD for paper developer. I mixed three different bnatches of stock solution and have sperated them into four different liter soda bottle. Two Coke, two Mt Dew, and used the same four bottles for each mixing. The stock in the coke bottles still has a hint of coke when I smell it, and the bottles in teh Mt Dew bottles still have a hint of Mt. Dew.

Very pleseant compared to most chemical odors.

 

[Bob F.]

Most developers do not have much odour so you are probably safe there, but if you think you may get allergies then avoiding ones that use Metol seems to be the general rule (see other current thread re' allergic reaction).

Odourless stop bath (citric acid based instead of acetic acid) and a low-odour fixer (Tetenal and Fotospeed make them - there are probably others) go a long way to improving the environment in the darkroom, with or without forced ventilation.

As far as I can tell, as long as you do not actually drink the liquids or snort the powders and take sensible and obvious precautions such as clearing up any spills and washing off anything that gets on your skin and not eating/drinking/smoking in there etc, the only real risk is one of allergic reaction and that seems pretty rare and usually manageable by using different chemicals.

Have fun, Bob.

 

[Loose Gravel]

Try DS-14 for a paper developer or some of the other ascorbate developers. Skip the stop bath -- water is fine. I've been using Kodak rapid fix. It's not bad in the stink department. Maybe I just like it. I don't use toners. I know that they make prints last longer (sometimes), but I think my prints will last long enough for me and nobody else seems to give a damn.

 

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

I didnt even know there'd been a book published on the subject, all I'd heard was metol often caused some problems after a while, fixer smells and not to drink stop bath.
As with most things I kinda figured you'd be ok if you weren't an idiot about it. The worst that's happened to me was I got some stuff on my wrist filling the tank once, and I just upgraded to larger gloves that cover my wrists. I'm sticking to odourless fixer and stuff, and I'll see what sort of paper developer I have available to me, so thanks everyone for all the replies.

 

[srs5694]

The safest paper developers from a health perspective are likely to be phenidone/ascorbic acid (PC) developers. Unfortunately, these are fairly rare. XTOL is a PC film developer. AFAIK, the only commercial PC paper developers are Agfa Neutol Plus (note the "Plus;" there are other products in the Neutol line) and the Silvergrain Tektol developers. Both are likely to be hard to find; Agfa folded, and although their chemicals are now being sold by a company called A&O, the supply chain was interrupted and availability seems spotty. The Silvergrain developers are sold by a mail-order outfit in the United States and are fairly new. Shipping to Australia would no doubt be ridiculously expensive. I don't know if there's any existing or planned official import channel.

The Silvergrain chemicals (or at least Silvergrain Tektol Standard) are based on the mix-it-yourself Dead Link Removed which Loose Gravel mentioned. There are other mix-it-yourself PC print developers out there, so if you can get your hands on some raw ingredients, you can mix a wide variety of developers. OTOH, mixing them yourself means you'll be exposing yourself to chemical powders, which can get airborne. Both Neutol Plus and the Silvergrain Tektol line ship as liquids. If you're sensitive to such things, liquids are probably better than powders.

One other point: XTOL can be used as a print developer (any film developer can be), but results may not be optimal. I've never tried XTOL to develop paper, so I can't say precisely what it would do.

 

[Ryuji]

The Silvergrain developers are sold by a mail-order outfit in the United States and are fairly new. Shipping to Australia would no doubt be ridiculously expensive. I don't know if there's any existing or planned official import channel.

Unfortunately, this is true. However, Jon (sales@digitaltruth.com) offers surface shipping for those who can wait with patience. He may not have this option on the web shopping cart (that's understandible; everyone is used to express shippers and surface mail is so 20th century). As far as I know he gets enough overseas orders this way, and the only drawback is that the package may arrive 2 months later. I don't handle sales, distribution, or anything business aspect of this, so the best way to get more info is to ask him directly. Silvergrain products are shipped directly from the factory.

 

[Photo Engineer]

One of the safest things you can do in your darkroom is to install ground fault interruptors for every line in the room. That way, when you touch something that uses electricity with wet hands, you don't kill yourself if there is a fault in the device or wiring.

PE

 

[Ryuji]

Let me disagree.
If the original poster intends to do b&w reversal he probably will use dichromates.
To me this is the most dangerous chemical around, along with formalin.

I have posted this before, but it makes little sense to argue compounds X and Y, which is more toxic, kind of things, when X and Y have different kinds of effects, different route to enter the body, different mechanisms of toxicity, etc. Selenium powder, selenium toner, mercury intensifier, dichromates are all harmful to human body but they have different route of entry and different target organs.

It also makes little sense to argue compound X is toxic or not without considering the quantity. Selenium, chromium, etc. have different effects to body whether it's 1 microgram or 1 milligram or 1 gram.

In most likely scenario, one becomes irritated and becomes uncomfortable with formalin vapor before anything serious occurs. But with mercury the timeline is opposite. I would definitely be more cautious about mercury because of this reason. Indeed, I refuse to handle mercury.

However, this line of arguments by Monophoto and Alessandro are missing the point that a safety-oriented person can avoid all of the above (mercury, selenium, chromium compounds and formalin) altogether and still do b&w darkroom work. If selenium toner, for example, is necessary, and if the operator is ready to use it (in terms of safetey training, protective gear, ventilation, etc.) then these optional steps may be added to the practice.