I give Pyrocat plenty of respect, i dont use gloves but am very careful.
Reminds me of the old timer that taught how to print many many years ago. He used to taste the fixer to see if it was any good. Well one day he just turned gray, really really gray. weird i know but the doctors said his body had accumulated silver in system that was photosensitive. and well he got exposed LOL LOL.... true story....
Some people take colloidal silver for supposed health benefits. Too much of it and they turn into smurfs. Well, they turn blue at any rate. Google will turn up images.Originally Posted by photobymike
Lots of things are dangerous, the question is, how dangerous? In all these discussions about the toxicity of pyro I've never seen anyone post the LEL for it. I wonder, Drew, do you wear gloves when you pump your gas? I'd be willing to bet the gas you pump and the fumes coming from it are far more dangerous, by orders of magnitude, than the very dilute pyro developers we use. Attributing Weston's illness to his exposure to pyro is not only alarmist, it's completely unsupportable. When you say "probably", you suggest there is some calculable probability, but for that to be even possible, there would need to be some documented link between pyro and Parkinson's disease, which there isn't. It would be far more accurate to say his Parkinson's was definitely not caused by his exposure to pyro, because there is simply no medical evidence to suggest it's possible. Catechol, by the way, is used as a topical antiseptic in much higher concentrations than any film developer.
Are you certain of this?
Jay, maybe you should do a little homework before you go spouting.
If one is soaking one's hands in photo chemicals every day for hours on end, then sure, gloves are important. Few of us do that, unless we work in a lab as a full-time profession.
I wouldn't soak my hands in sea water for hours on end, and not expect some kind of adverse reaction. You certainly don't want too drink much, or you'll get a nasty reaction.
I agree with what Jay has said. It doesn't hurt that he's a Chemical Engineer of course, but common sense tells us that many household cleaning products are just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than diluted pyro developer in a tray. Their packaging often warns us to contact our nearest poison control center if we ingest them.
If we were to swallow some household bleach or ammonia, or even inhale too much of it, we'd be in a real... pickle as they say. Never mind gasoline or paint thinner - or even most paint for that matter. Even table salt, NaCl, can be very dangerous when consumed in excess.
Don't under-estimate the toxicity of Pyrogallol and Pyrocatechin, sure there's plenty of dangerous household chemicals but they aren't absorbed into the body in the same way (through the skin) as these organic developing agents.
Gloves are cheap, so it makes sense to be cautious.
Ian
Cautious, but not alarmist. I've known many people with Parkinson's that never stepped a foot into a darkroom.
Drew,
You're right, I didn't do my homework. I've been searching for any credible link that states pyrogallol causes Parkinson's disease, and I can't find one. Can you provide a source that says pyrogallol causes Parkinson's? I'd be very interested to know this. What I was able to find fairly easily, is that both catechol and pyrogallol are used as topical medications in higher concentrations than we would ever use in developers. I think that's significant. What separates medicine from poison is often the dosage, so without specifying the Lower Exposure Limit for a chemical, we can't say with any authority whether a chemical is one or the other.
Ken,
I'm not a chemical engineer, or any other kind of engineer, for that matter. I don't know much about chemistry. Sorry to disappoint.
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