how important is ventilation??

[vintagesnaps]

I like the smell of the chemistry but I don't think I could tolerate it cooped up in a closed bathroom. I'd probably look into the louvered vents as suggested here. I've always used tongs (although have gotten my fingers/hand in the fixer particularly and rinse right away then stop and use soap and water) and have worn rubber gloves depending on what I was doing.

I've used a darkroom at a local university and they seemed to always have the ventilation running anytime I went in there (and the AC in the summer when I used it the most). I'd be up there maybe a couple of hours at a time, but that included going in and out to the classroom space to use the lightbox, squeegee and put prints on the drying rack, etc. (stopping to chat w/someone in one of the studios on the lower floor, getting a soft drink, etc. etc.).

I was thinking I don't know that I'd let a 3 year old in there til it had been open and aired out for some time after you use it, but I don't know how long that would need to be or what precautions might be necessary related to air quality.

I do know from my work in early intervention that in the city where I've worked there were documented learning problems among children at a particular school that was in an industrial area where air quality has been a concern (they since finally closed the school) so it seems that poor air quality can be detrimental to younger children. I also have worked with kids with lead poisoning (the children were showing delays in development) and it's known to cause brain damage - the concern with young children is due to their bodies being smaller than adults they are more affected by ingesting the same lead/breathing the same polluted air as adults in the family and so have more sensitivity to it. I don't know what impact fumes from photo chemistry might potentially have on a young child.

edit - Reread that this is an extra bathroom that you don't regularly use, so that might make for less of a concern and be easier to keep off limits as needed. But I'd still look into a fan/vent etc.

 

[wyogirl]

Thanks all for the tips. Joe, I ordered the book, it should be here soon. I'm going to look into the logistics of installing an exhaust fan in the ceiling that will vent to the attic/outside. We do have central a/c so there will be fresh air coming in, I just need to get the fumes out. And Terri- no I do not plan on having trays filled with chemicals left out.... even though the room will be locked, I don't want to risk my son getting into it. I will have tightly capped bottles though.

I guess until then, I will just have to do my developing at night with the window cracked.

 

[Ysarex]

Thanks all for the tips. Joe, I ordered the book, it should be here soon.

:thumbup: After you read it take it to school.

I'm going to look into the logistics of installing an exhaust fan in the ceiling that will vent to the attic/outside.

:thumbup:

 

[Niner]

This string brings to mind my experience thirty years ago. I was enlarging and printing b&w photos in a small bathroom in my house that did have a vent. I used that bath because it didn't have a window and was easy to keep dark. I was making 11x14 and 8x10 prints using trays in a bath tub. I was doing a lot of them for a show.

After making prints regularly over a few weeks I developed a sore throat. I went to an eye, ear, nose and throat doctor. He examined my throat and got all excited about what he saw. He wanted to know if I smoked. At the time I did and said so. He said , "your throat looks just like it looks just before cancer shows up". I quit smoking right away. Then.... some time later I read an article warning that breathing chemical fumes from printing could cause severe sore throat. Then it dawned on me what had happened. The only good thing about this story is .... I gave up smoking cigarettes.

 

[timor]

It sounds like a stupid question...I know this. But, we have a spare bathroom that we NEVER use. I was all ready to set up my dark room for black and white developing in there, when I realized it doesn't have an exhaust fan. Is B/W chemestry really caustic? Will I die?

Heh.. :???:. Die ? From what ? Car accident ? B&W chemistry maybe smells not like air deodoriser, but is not caustic. As long as you don't dip you fingers constantly in paper developer with metol you'll be alright. Metol can cause skin allergy, but it didn't happened to my for the past 35 years. I live despite lack of ventilation in any of my simple darkrooms. If you think you will sit in the darkroom for solid hours daily you are mistaking.

 

[unpopular]

^^ or you're just sloppy with your fixer, it gets pretty noxious. Dangerous? IDK, sort of doubt it.

B/W Chemistry is relatively caustic at stock solution. I think they ship Stop bath at 30% Acetic Acid, which will burn through your bathtub - in about five year's time. All developers are very caustic, especially in powder form, and likely carcinogens. But the dangers are more probably more physical than aerial. It's probably a good idea to wear gloves and use a mask when mixing powder.

You can add simple ventilation pretty easy and inexpensively. Hydroponic supply shops will have good options that can be attached to flexible ducts. One darkroom I worked in just used an air conditioning unit, and never felt it wasn't sufficient.

But as for health hazards, when I was a kid I used to just clean up my hands? with metabisulfite when working with sodium dichromate solutions. Can't guarantee that holes aren't forming in my bones (or was that pyrogallol, another very toxic photo chemical I didn't use as carefully as I should have), but I'm not dead either. Oh, to be 18 again.

 

[maris]

I do several hundred hours of black and white darkroom work a year. I started in 1968. I've never worked in a ventilated darkroom, airconditioned yes ventilated no, with absolutely no discomfort or ill effects ever. How? I never touch chemistry or need to. All black and white papers are handled with tongs (practice makes for dexterity) from tray to tray. Film development happens in tanks where chemistry travels from bottles to jugs to tanks and back to bottles without pouring any of it on myself. All this not because I'm scared of poisoning but because I don't want contaminated fingers touching film and paper and causing marks.

Aside from water there are no volatiles in my darkroom. Ordinary developers, Dektol and D76, give off no fumes. My odourless stop bath gives off no fumes. My odourless fixer gives off no fumes. There is nothing in particular for a ventilation system to do.

My profession background includes analytical chemistry and laboratory studies of chemically originated biological toxicity. I can say confidently that ordinary (not pyro, not cyanide, etc) photo-chemistry, when handled mindfully, is much less dangerous than household bleach, washing powder, boiling water, whisky and many other things that people (that includes children) may encounter in ordinary households.

Overexposure: Health Hazards in Photography: Monona Rossol, Susan D. Shaw: 9780960711864: Amazon.com: Books is a bit of a read but much of it is theoretically based alarmism cobbled together from notes out of chemistry books. Monona Rossol is not an unbiassed scientist. She has made a lifetime career out of the chemical hazard message. Read her many books with an open but alert mind.