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Re: to squabble or not..

Richard Knoppow's note helps make my original point. "Chicken Little" scare tactics may keep someone from trying what is a relatively safe process i.e. gum printing. Richard is concerned about the dangers of dichromates, and rightly so, but he is now thinking that this chemical may be too dangerous to use based on a warning posted on this list.

To reiterate my original statement. It doesn't hurt to warn the people on this list about hazards but, if you are going to do so, please assume that they are intelligent human beings and not blithering idiots so that your warning is not insulting. Also, keep in mind, that some hazards are very, very well known already by most of the people on this list who are actually doing these processes. Also there are a number of people on this list with graduate degrees in all sorts of fields including science who are extremely well informed about hazardous materials and really do not want to listen to another lecture on the subject especially if the lecturer is speaking to us like Fred Rogers.

Bob Schramm

>From: Richard Knoppow
>Reply-To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
>To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
>Subject: Re: to squabble or not..
>Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 17:21:27 -0700
>
>At 10:14 PM 04/09/2001 +0000, you wrote:
> >I got the same thing Richard.
> >R.
> Mark answered this already.
> I don't want to further this issue. A book I've found helpful in
>understanding chemical hazards is_The Dose Makes the Poison_ 2nd ed.
>M.Alice Ottoboni, Phd., 1991, Van Nostrand Reinhold ISBN 0-422-00660-8
>While it does not discuss the hazards of specific chemicals it does give
>some guidance as to how to evaluate hazards.
> I have not found a good, reliable, source of specific hazard information.
>MSDS are often aimed at industrial users.
> Obviously some sustances used in alternative photography must be handled
>with extreme care. Even in conventional photography there are some
>compounds which are hazardous if handled carelessly. It would be useful to
>have a source of factual information. That would help in deciding if some
>substance was really just too hazardous to take a chance on.
> I am convinced that Mercury and mercury compounds fall into this
>catagory. It is also obvious (or should be) that concentrated acid, of any
>sort, is very hazardous and should handled with specific precaucations and
>very great respect. There are some acids, maybe Hydroflouric, which are
>probably too hazardous for a home lab.
> I am not sure where Potassium dichromate fits in here. It is obviously
>hazardous, but it is also at the heart of several alternative processes.
> I suspect that warnings are in order but that they should be accompiannied
>by some realistic assesment of the hazard and practical advise as to how to
>deal with it. The sort of warning which makes you feel that a small bottle
>in the next county is reason to run for the hills is not very helpful.
> Bob Maxey may be right about dichromate, I'm far from an expert and can't
>argue the point. I would like to know, however, just what sort of
>precautions I would have to take to use the stuff safely if I wanted to
>try, say, gum printing or carbon printing or some other process which
>depends on dichromate sensitizing. If his warnings are valid there is
>excellent reason to stay away from the stuff.
>
>----
>Richard Knoppow
>Los Angeles,Ca.
>dickburk@ix.netcom.com

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