From: Sarah Van Keuren (svk@steuber.com)
Date: 04/30/00-02:08:26 PM Z
> I want to express my thanks to those who offered advise on methods to assist
> in the disposal of chromium waste. This is exactly what I needed! I wonder
> why none of the "alternative photography" manuals contain advise on these
> procedures?
>
> Am I the only dichromate user that is concerned with this problem? I am
> puzzled as to why other gum printers on this list, those that are usually
> quick to contribute, were conspicuously absent from this discussion. Judy,
> Sarah, Kathryn, Sandy - you folks don't just shrug and dump this waste down
> the drain? Do you?
>
Linda, good for you to prod us gum printers into a reply. I intend to bring
home from the University of the Arts a letter that I will quote sent me by a
chemist who did research for NIH on the toxicity of dichromates. His
research makes me feel less guilty about letting the dichromate that
releases into trays of water go down the drain in the big polluted city of
Philadelphia. (It does go through a filter of limestone that hasn't been
changed in years and that I doubt helps.) As for the few times that a
concentrated mixture of dichromate has gotten too old, I have brought it
home and saved it until my partner, Harry, could make a run with other toxic
chemicals and my load to our county hazardous waste disposal site which is
accepts such stuff only two days per year. I also save expired ferric
oxalate from palladium for recycle. It is an ongoing sore point with me that
my school has no provision for hazardous waste disposal and that I have to
carry it home and store it on the property where we live. Yes, I do worry
about the contribution my students and I make to the degradation of the
planet and sometimes consider giving up the whole enterprise. At the same
time the consumers of already manufactured photographic papers and films and
services bear a load of guilt for the pollution created in the pursuit of
their art but it isn't as obvious. I will get back to you midweek.
Sarah Van Keuren
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