RE: Chemical safety question (am I poisoning myself?)

Gold chloride being acid (usually), perhaps the offending substance is
sulphur dioxide liberated from the hypo, possibly in small quantity that
you don't notice as a smell. Adding some sulphite to the solution
*might* prevent/reduce it (it prevents precipitation of sulphur in
acidic hypo solutions), if that would be OK in your application. Don't
have time right now, but look up MSDS for sulphur dioxide to see what
hazards you could be exposing yourself to.

Liam

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Lovenguth [mailto:chris@chrisportfolio.com]
Sent: 07 May 2004 00:19
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Chemical safety question (am I poisoning myself?)

Hi all I had a question about some chemicals I'm using for gold gilding.
I might have asked this in the past but I can't remember. I'm using a
solution of 5oz of Sodium Thiosulfate in 500ml of water. I mix with this
a gold chloride solution (1g of gold chloride to 500ml of water), I use
of the gold stock solution only 50ml to the 500ml Sodium Thiosulfate. I
then heat this solution to almost boiling for gilding my daguerreotype
plates (Becquerel process so my plate just has silver and iodine).

Well the point to this email is that every so often while gilding, I get
a little weird feeling (tingling and a little dizzy). I don't stand
there over the solution inhaling the vapors constantly, but I am also
not using a hood or anything. I have the windows open in my place while
I do this and try to stay away from the heated solution while gilding.

I'm just worried how dangerous this might be and what I can use to
prevent possibly poisoning myself (mask, etc) and what might actually be
causing these symptoms. I'm not one to usually be sensitive to any
chemicals for photography purposes, like hypo etc.

Thanks,

-Chris
Received on Thu May 6 18:04:32 2004