I admitted I was feeling the same way and that it could have been the incident in the darkroom causing our symptoms. He said he was feeling rotten like he had the flu and he was having trouble concentrating, which was not especially healthy given the work he does. The next day, Dave, the policeman, called and asked if I was feeling all right. We stopped what we were doing, threw open the door and dumped all of the chemicals. The ventilation fan was going but obviously something was happening. Before we were done we began to feel a tightness in our throats. We decided to print all of the copper sheets anyway, just to use them up. We had interesting results with all of the materials although the copper was a little disappointing, because it did not maintain its shiny color. Another student, a police officer, was enlisted to help in this project as he was also interested in the Liquid Light process. When it was her turn to work in the lab, she brought various materials, rocks, pieces of cement, glass and copper foil that she had previously coated with Liquid Light, a product consisting of a liquid gelatin emulsion, that allows you to print on about anything. She wanted to take the darkroom class so she could learn how to print photos on various materials to be part of her artwork. One of the students was a respected artist noted for multi-media collages. So I began to offer small classes on darkroom skills through our local arts council. The darkroom is large enough for 3 people to work at a time. But my experience with sulfur dioxide gas poisoning was not yet over. When I built my studio, I was able to build the darkroom of my dreams, a large airy space with a large sink, running water, and good ventilating fan. It also cured the aching, irritability and flu-like symptoms that I had after a long session of printing. I installed a large fan and the work space became a much more comfortable place to work. That incident woke me up to the need to ventilate my darkroom. And needless to say, sulfur dioxide gas is not healthy to be breathing. ![]() After about 15 minutes she said, “We’ve got to get out of here. After about 10 minutes working over the sink she complained of trouble breathing. It was only after I had an assistant helping me that I fully realized the severity of the situation. While it was much larger than the closets and bathrooms I had used before this time, I noticed that I was only able to work for about 15 minutes at a time and then I would always begin to feel anxious and have trouble concentrating. The realization that I was slowly being poisoned finally came to me after I set up a darkroom in the laundry room of my house. And now that I know the dangers of photographic chemicals and their fumes, I am surprised and fortunate that I haven’t had even more severe problems. Usually located in a laundry room, bathroom, or large closets, all my darkrooms have had one thing in common: little or no ventilation.Ībout 9 years ago, I began to connect the darkroom with health problems I was having. I’ve had a darkroom of one sort or another since I was in college when my roommate and I turned our dorm room into a portrait studio and our walk-in closet, a black and white lab. All photo chemicals are OK except Farmers Reducer which requires a sink made of red-brass (high copper content).Having a your own darkroom can be fun and profitable. Again, if corrasion starts, only nitric acid will stop and arrest. I suggest replacing because it's corrasion may contaminate. The strainer is likely a low grade stainless or was never treated with nitric acid. Likely the sink will be OK for years and photo chemicals won't harm. ![]() Under normal conditions, stainless corrodes but this is transparent and this coat protects the underlying stainless. Never uses iron wool because if traces of iron imbed, they rust and this action causes the underlying stainless to corrode. Is low grade or traces of iron that you want to avoid. This cleanses the metal of any iron contamination from tools. The strainer is likely not a good grade, Stainless is pacified during sink manufacture. ![]() Stainless comes in many grades, photo grade is #316 most sinks #312 not as good. Photo chemicals are corrosive however a good grade of stainless is immune. The sink itself is stainless steel and shows no corrosion.Ĭould these very standard chemicals cause rust? But just to rule out all possibilities, suppose some dated D-76, Dektol, fixer, Photo-Flo was poured out. So far, to the best of my knowledge, I've only used plain water. I just had a new sink installed in my darkroom and the stainless-steel basket strainer has rust beginnings.
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