From: Joachim (joachim@microdsi.net)
Date: 05/01/00-08:17:57 PM Z
Well said. As a physician who has probably saved more lives by getting
people to quit smoking than any antics in the ER, I am very please to see
you put risk in perspective and cool down anxiety. With carcinogens we are
not dealing with strictly linear effects ("one molecule") but thresholds
come into the picture. While we may never know the threshold for any
particular substance for any one particular individual, there are reasonable
safe ranges. I doubt if walking to work in New York City from the village
to midtown ever gave anybody a skin cancer, unless he also regularly sunned
himself for hours on end and gave himself some 2nd degree burns. It's good
to take precautions, it's good to wear seat belts...but, live a little, it's
safe. Joachim
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sil Horwitz [mailto:silh@earthlink.net]
> Sent: Monday, May 01, 2000 2:38 PM
> To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> Subject: Re: Dichromate Hazards - Thanks!
>
>
> At 2000/05/01 12:57 PM -0500, Linda Phillips wrote:
> >The thing about dichromates that make them scarier for me is the
> fact that
> >they are carcinogenic. I may be wrong about this, but I've always had
> >the understanding that with carcinogens, only ONE MOLECULE is enough to
> >cause cancer, if the conditions are right and your luck is bad.
>
> Drop into any health food store, and you will find (1) chromium is an
> ingredient in all multiple vitamins and minerals, and (2) chromium
> compounds are available in tablets as a dietary supplement, as it is
> difficult to get sufficient quantities in todays sanitized food products.
> All humans need a trace of chromium for healthy living. Disposing
> of a few
> grams of a chromium compound into a wastewater system may actually be
> improving our health - think of that!
>
> The "carcinogenic" component normally is inhalation of the powder and/or
> ingestion of considerably more than a molecule. If you are running an
> industrial operation using tons of the stuff, then you certainly should
> abide by all the precautionary handling.
>
>
> Sil Horwitz, FPSA
> Technical Editor, PSA Journal
> teched@psa-photo.org
> silh@earthlink.net
> Visit http://www.psa-photo.org/
> Personal page: http://home.earthlink.net/~silh/
>
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