> Somebody mentioned to cover the trays in the darkroom to avoid
irritating fumes > beeing inhaled by the worker. I definitely cannot
advise to do this! The workers > irritation indicates that air condition
und these circumstances in insufficient
I am that somebody, and let me clarify -- I speak of, for the most part,
"regular" darkroom chemicals. I find the odor of both stop and fix
extremely unpleasant and keeping the trays covered during an ordinary
working session makes an enormous difference. Leaving mixed
chemicals of other types covered for longer periods is of course a whole
other topic. I had an experience similar to the one Klaus describes of
lifting the cover of a tray of maverick material left a week or so and
getting a breath of what I took for a good imitation of mustard gas.
Fortunately a small breath.
What I do with "special" chemicals is either return them to a screw top
glass container or, for brief periods, leave in a beaker with a
watch-glass cover. I have never had any trouble with the latter, but maybe
I never made such a strange brew again.
I will add that I have NO ventilating system in my darkroom, because it is
entirely below grade with stone walls about 20 inches thick & no room
overhead for installation of ducts. With the system above (& the one
exception) I don't have a problem, tho maybe one day you'll read otherwise
in work by some latterday Bill Jay...
> This accumulation can be avoided by a swimming
> lid only.
Lacking a swimming lid, a same-size tray can be inserted into the solution.
Judy