RS is consistently objective and balanced in his approach to the use of
chemicals. We have, as grown ups, to accept that we have the choice to use
materials that may well be dangerous. It is incumbent upon us to read the labels
on the bottles and either decide not to use the material if it the label says
that the material is toxic or discover how to use it safely.
I remember when I first read a B & S catalogue with Dick's comment that if you
could bake a cake you could do do alternative photography. In my own maxim I
say that you should also be able to paint a front door with gloss paint.In both
cases you have to understand the materials and the tools and how they behave. I
use cooking analogies in my workshops for that very reason.
The 'set books' for my courses include the price lists of photographic
suppliers such as B & S and Silverprint and art and print suppliers such as
Intaglio, T N Lawrence and Michael Putnam, but chemical suppliers and
manufacturers such as Aldrich.and Johnson Mathey. I encourage people to read
basic guides such as Keepers of Light and handbooks on art techniques such as
Mayer. I also suggest that if they are not chemists that they read a good high
school text book on chemistry so that they at least undertand some of the
implications of the periodic table and that the implications of .safety data
should be understood.
What this amounts to is that by the time we reach the stage of dealing with
alternative processes we are grown ups. We are aware that mercuric chloride is
poisonous or we can read the label on the bottle. I do not use it because I have
not found a need for it.
I am reminded that some Victorian photographers used to keep a lump of potassium
cyanide on the dark room shelf to use as a pumice stone to get rid of silver
nitrate stains on their hands. NOT a practice I recommend.
RS says:
" I disagree with Jack Fulton on the nth degree thing. Mercury should be
handled with respect and it's major problem is environmental. In liquid form
it normally doesn't make any gaseous compounds that are dangerous, it is
absorbed through the skin, but so is chromium and many of the other
compounds we use. If some got splashed on your hands or arms, a good wash
would suffice, no need to call 911"
On my workshops I rend to OTT on safety just to enhance awareness but then give
the advice that RS gives here.
RS.
"Note that the "Mad Hatters" of the
Victorian age were splashing about in the stuff day in and day out."
We might note the current worries as to the carcinogenic nature of benzene. Most
modern developers are benzenes in one form or another.
RS says:
" Yes 1 gm can kill you but so can a 2 degree deviation for 5 seconds a 65 mph
on the
Interstate. Since I own in a corporation that manufactures and sells
chemicals, I can buy pretty much anything that is not controlled by the DEA,
but it hasn't always been that way. I get calls from highly intelligent and
responsible people everyday who wish to use some of the older formulas and
cannot get the materials they need. Ever tried to buy 10 gms of potassium
chlorate from Metropolis Chemicals?"
Print supply houses sell potassium chlorate in small quantities and so will
chemical wholesalers if they are satisfied as to your bona fides.
RS
"I had a friend who was teaching photography at a
high school and they were doing Blueprints. A teacher saw "cyanide" on the
potassium ferricyanide bottle and that was the end of that. "Cyanide is
cyanide" was the quote relayed to me. "
I remember that when I first used ferri and was, in my ignorance and naivety
being overly careful, I came out of the darkroom to ind that I had a line of
potassium cyanide crystals arranged in a neat line alomg a new cat scratch on
the back of my hand. I thought that I was dead or that my arm would fall off. It
was then that I found the National Poisons Unit, manned every hour of the year,
who told me that potassium ferricyanide was one of the less toxic of the cyanide
group of chemicals. How toxic is less toxic ? It was then that I resolved that
I had to know what I was doing. But even then I was trying to operate in in fail
safe mode.
RS
"I know that if I had started my business later in the childproof chemical
world that we are now building, B&S wouldn't have gotten started, and people
today would be paying Mallinkrodt prices for platinum salts"
One certainly have the impression that matters in the States have got quite out
of proportion. US companies in the UK seem to take a far more responsible
attitude to the needs of their customers. Judging by some of the coments on the
list I am surprised that some of these people get out of bed in the morning but
then bed is the most dangerous place to be. More people die there than anywhere
else.
RS
"I'm not a raving lunatic right wing militiaman. I don't see much use for 100
round assault rifles, but I can see an intelligent person safely adding to
the world's joy some nice mercury toned VanDykes."
Hear! Hear!
RS
" I think that people should be careful and environmentally responsible, and
from the tone of the
discussion here on the list, I think by and large, that the community here
is just that."
Hear! Hear ! Hear !
Terry King