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  #1  
Old 29th October 2018, 04:59 PM
Quendil Quendil is offline
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Default Safety Equipment

What safety equipment do you use for your darkroom for film and paper development?

If you use gloves which sort are best? I'm not sure I like the idea of disposable ones as it seem a shame to keep throwing them away.

Thanks
David
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Old 29th October 2018, 05:18 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Quendil,Frankly none. I currently only only use proprietary liquid fixer, developers and stop and as far as I can determine all are safe to the extent of not bathing my hands in them but should any spill on to my hands when mixing my stock Xtol for instance then I'd rinse them under the tap once I have finished mixing or pouring into the tank. Here again, if I spill the odd drop of Xtol or fixer then I am sure there are occasions when my good intentions to rinse and dry have "gone west"

I use a Nova slot processor for printing so there is never any contact between dev, stop and fix and my hands. If I were a prolific printer and used trays I would probably use tongs but even trays necessitate very little in the way of hand immersion.

It all depends on what your processes are. If you don't have a tap in the darkroom you might want a tray/container of water and towels( always handy anyway) to rinse your hands and dry them.

Mike
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Old 29th October 2018, 05:48 PM
Quendil Quendil is offline
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Thanks Mike. I have a temporary darkroom in the roof and I am using a 2 slot processor at the moment. I do my film developing in the kitchen and use Ilford products (Ilfosol 3 for film, Mulitgrade for paper and their fixer and stop). Although I have just developed a film with Caffenol that seems to have worked.
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Old 29th October 2018, 06:02 PM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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When making prints on FB papers I often get my fingers in the developer which is PQ based, they get rinsed well immediately after.

Most important is a safety trip for the dish warmer, lights are on pull cord, plenty of towels to dry hands.

Ian
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Old 29th October 2018, 06:48 PM
John King John King is offline
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Default Protection

For personal Protection - None.

However I wear a Lab coat (when I remember) to prevent staining on my clothes. I always use tongs to move prints about and transfer them from bath to bath. On the floor I stand on a thick sponge rubber mat, both for foot comfort and insulation against and risk of electrical shock, although I think this is a little OTT as regards electrical risk.
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Old 29th October 2018, 07:04 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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I use tongs mostly and fingers sometimes but you have to wash your hands and dry them well when touching paper
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Old 30th October 2018, 07:49 AM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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I have never used any safety equipment for darkroom film and paper processing, I do use tongs mainly for prints, I prefer stainless steel and have 3 or 4 pairs, and just in case I have my lights on string pulls, apart from that nothing
Richard
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Old 30th October 2018, 09:10 AM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
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Hi David. The safety equipment you need depends on the type of chemicals you use, and how much physical contact you have with them. Some people are allergic to certain chemicals used in developer, etc which can be a problem. Some developers, like Pyro types, are highly toxic. If you use powder chemicals to mix into solution, a dust mask can be a sensible precaution, as well as eye protection. I use the dust masks and safety glasses you find in DIY stores. The best gloves I find are the disposable Nitrile type. These can be washed and re-used. They are much cheaper purchased online, rather than in a DIY shop. Latex gloves are not fully protective. I use daylight tanks for all film processing, so chemical contact is minimal and well controlled. Having said that, I don’t like to get B&W developers on my skin, so I work next to a sink to allow a quick clean-up. For printing, I use a Nova slot processor. Contact is again very limited, although you can get a bit of fixer on your hands when removing prints to the wash. It’s important to avoid this, or clean it off as the fixer can contaminate the next sheet of paper you use. Toning chemicals can be toxic, or an irritant, so gloves, etc are recommended. Sepia involves a strong bleach, and Selenium is toxic and carcinogenic. Most standard B&W processing chemicals, however, are pretty safe to use, so you may only need hand protection for the known toxic ones, or if you feel you are experiencing a reaction to a particular chemical.
Alex


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  #9  
Old 30th October 2018, 04:57 PM
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Bob Bob is offline
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Disposable non-latex gloves when clearing up or making up powder developers. When mixing powders I also select a window sill and open the window that has the wind blowing outwards (poor-man's fume cupboard ).

Other than that, I use tongs for trays. If I spill chemicals on my hand I just rinse it off (don't use soap, it will remove a lot of the oil from your skin which you want to keep as it is your natural barrier).

I wear an apron to keep stuff off my clothes when printing.

I think that's about all.
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  #10  
Old 30th October 2018, 11:35 PM
NJHrs NJHrs is offline
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I bought some Nitrile gloves made by Ansell, in their product type called Solvex. These are really cheap, only about £2 a pair online, are grippy, comfortable and seem to last well. Basically an industrial version of dish washing gloves (the mrs is actually using a pair for such duties).

The key thing to look for is EN 374 compliance:
http://www.guide.eu/en/info/EN/en374.html

The Ansell Solvex green ones are marked EN 374 with the letters JKL under the pictogram marked on them (n-Heptan, sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid). For a couple of quid to reduce the risk from being splashed with developer they seem like a bit of a no brainer to me really.

The only other PPE I have for darkroom work is some fine particulate face masks. I have only used this for mixing powder developer though so they pretty much never get used as I hate working with powders. I also have some wrap around over glasses but tend to only use those in the garage. You just know that when you are under a car that bit of grit that falls off is going straight in yer eye. Its like a Murphy's law for car mechanics.
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