Disinfecting developed film from lab due to Coronavirus

[Alan Klein]

How would you handle negatives, contact sheets, glassines the film is shipped in, all received back from a lab who developed your negatives? It's easy to spray things with 91% isopropyl alcohol. But just which objects should be sprayed? Which could be damaged?

[jp]

Just let them sit for a few days. Corona doesn't last that long without a host.

[Vaughn]

Dilute your alcohol a little down to 80% or a little lower -- it will be more effective.

[Doremus Scudder]

Just let them sit for a few days. Corona doesn't last that long without a host.

This, if you're really worried about it. 72 hours will definitely do the job. The same applies to packages received, etc. Discard the packaging, set the contents aside and then wash your hands well. Let things sit for 72 hours.

Doremus

P.S: FWIW, hand sanitizer, etc. are all about 60% alcohol.

[JMO]

I think the best method might be to put the films out in the sun, or under a UV light, for a few hours.

[Sal Santamaura]

I think the best method might be to put the films out in the sun, or under a UV light, for a few hours.Two birds with one stone. Alan's transparencies disinfected and subjected to an accelerated light fading test at the same time. :)

[Paul Ron]

Just let them sit for a few days. Corona doesn't last that long without a host.

+1

[Alan Klein]

Dilute your alcohol a little down to 80% or a little lower -- it will be more effective.

Why is that?

[Vaughn]

More effective -- the water allows the alcohol to do more damage. It is a science thing. I have forgotten the mechanism.

Whisky won't work -- not strong enough (internal use only), and anything over 80% is too strong.

[Jim Noel]

More effective -- the water allows the alcohol to do more damage. It is a science thing. I have forgotten the mechanism.

Whisky won't work -- not strong enough (internal use only), and anything over 80% is too strong.

According to the answer i got to this question, The water gets into the envelop surrounding the virus making it vulnerable to the alcohol. I use my UV sources to disinfect everything

[eli]

For negatives, Photoflo should work well enough.

I heard a good explanation of why soaps are effective.

Think of the virus as being 'mailed', transferred, to you in a protective envelope.

The envelope protects the DNA message inside, which is fragile and can no remain together without that envelope's protection.

Common soaps, simply wash away the envelope and the virus within, is destroyed without that enclosing protection.

I hope this helps.

PS: Ditch the negative carriers and use fresh, clean ones, once you have cleaned up the film.

Rewashing the prints with water, alcohol solution should work too, but I keep Everclear, 95%, for tasks like this sort and shellac mixing, as it is no poison, unless you drink it, and leaves a cleaner feeling skin surface than rubbing alcohol, in my opinion.

IMO.

[Vaughn]

According to the answer i got to this question, The water gets into the envelop surrounding the virus making it vulnerable to the alcohol. I use my UV sources to disinfect everything

I remember it being something like that...it is why WHO and other organizations' formulas for hand sensitizers is always 80% or lower.

I need to give some of my negatives massive UV cleaning -- I found it works best if I lay the negative to be treated on a sheet of paper that has been coated with a solution of iron, platinum and palladium salts.

[Alan Klein]

I made my own santizer per instructions on the web. 1/3 alcohol (I had 91%) 2/3 aloe and a few drops of lemon. There's other stuff you can add. The purpose of the aloe is to moisturize the ski as pure alcohol dries out skin something I learned as my hands had gotten all cracked and dried out. It says you need at least 60% alcohol left in the solution to be effective against the virus. Anyuone try high proof Vodka? There are some available that are over 150 proof (75%).
#6 Bacardi 151 — 151 Proof. (discontinued)
#5 Balkan Vodka — 176 Proof.
#4 Hapsburg Gold Label Premium Reserve Absinthe — 179 Proof.
#3 Bruichladdich X4 Quadrupled Whisky — 184 Proof.
#2 Everclear — 190 P

[BrianShaw]

Wait; what... Bacardi 151 was discontinued? I missed that news. How horrific!

[Bob Salomon]

Propane torch should’ve care of all of them.

Or, process your film yourself.

[Luis-F-S]

Wait; what... Bacardi 151 was discontinued?

I guess that means no more Bananas Foster at Brennan's!!!!

[Vaughn]

Propane torch should’ve care of all of them....
If I do get this virus, I am going to build a fire in the backyard and sit by it all day -- every time I cough, I do so into the fire and fry those buggers!

[LabRat]

If I do get this virus, I am going to build a fire in the backyard and sit by it all day -- every time I cough, I do so into the fire and fry those buggers!

Make love, not war, and embrace them!!! They want to be with you, right??? Give 'em cute little pet names like Nigel & Percy etc, and give 'em a matchbox to start their own little world...

Then throw it into the fire... ;-)

Steve K

[Alan Klein]

Wait; what... Bacardi 151 was discontinued? I missed that news. How horrific!
When I was in the USAF in Japan in the mid 1960's, the Airmen's Club use to make double Red Heart Rum and cokes. Red Heart was 151 proof rum too. A couple of those and you'd be good for two days. Don;t know if they make that anymore.

[Ed Richards]

>1/3 alcohol (I had 91%) 2/3 aloe

You have the ratio wrong. You need to end up with at least 70% alcohol in the final mix.

[HMG]

>1/3 alcohol (I had 91%) 2/3 aloe

You have the ratio wrong. You need to end up with at least 70% alcohol in the final mix.

Everything I've read says 60%. Two tiny bottles of commercial sanitizer I have here contain 60%. That said, the ration is still wrong. Should be 2/3 91% alcohol and 1/3 Aloe. FWIW, when I mixed some with the 2:1 ratio it came out much less viscous than the commercial versions (which I think use glycerine).

[RPNugent]

As someone who spent most of his professional life studying bacterial and viral diseases I would repeat jp's comment. Just let it sit for a day and you should be fine. Surface survival is usually less than a few hours for most viruses and corona has an estimated surface survival time of 9 hours.

[Jim Noel]

As someone who spent most of his professional life studying bacterial and viral diseases I would repeat jp's comment. Just let it sit for a day and you should be fine. Surface survival is usually less than a few hours for most viruses and corona has an estimated surface survival time of 9 hours.

A very good answer. It's also a good time to learn to do it yourself.

[Oren Grad]

As someone who spent most of his professional life studying bacterial and viral diseases I would repeat jp's comment. Just let it sit for a day and you should be fine. Surface survival is usually less than a few hours for most viruses and corona has an estimated surface survival time of 9 hours.

Appears to be more complicated than that for SARS-CoV-2 in particular:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973

That said, the findings in that NEJM letter are still consistent with this advice:


Just let them sit for a few days. Corona doesn't last that long without a host.

[Alan Klein]

>1/3 alcohol (I had 91%) 2/3 aloe

You have the ratio wrong. You need to end up with at least 70% alcohol in the final mix.

You're right. Typing error. That's the ratio I actually used. 2/3 alcohol (91% isopropyl), 1/3 aloe.

[Alan Klein]

As someone who spent most of his professional life studying bacterial and viral diseases I would repeat jp's comment. Just let it sit for a day and you should be fine. Surface survival is usually less than a few hours for most viruses and corona has an estimated surface survival time of 9 hours. But that's if the virus is on a flat surface. What if the virus got closed up in an envelope sealed from evaporation and exposure to air? What if the stock boy at the grocery store was packing your Coke bottles and trapped the virus along with his snot near the caps threads with the bottle just where you're going to handle it when you get it. The snot isn't going to evaporate so fast. It might be there the next day. I think you might be making too many assumptions. Tests are made under pristine conditions for consistancy. It'll be the oddball that will get you.

I'm waiting three days or if sooner, spraying the surface hopefully sufficiently with a disinfectant that will kill whatever's there. As an old fart, I may be more paranoid than most.

[BrianShaw]

Just keep washing your hands like you want to wash the skin off of them!

[reddesert]

This is a respiratory virus. You have to get it into your respiratory system to get it. If someone sneezes on your film box, it gets in the mail, and you touch it a day later, you still have to then bring your hands to your face and get the virus-containing particles onto your face to actually get it. The viral load will be diluted in each of these transfer steps, and washing your hands with soap will destroy it.

There is no harm that I know of in letting packages, film boxes, etc to sit for three days to be sure, but I think the publicity surrounding the study that shows the virus can survive on surfaces for a while has got people too paranoid about touch, and not enough about breath. I was at the grocery store two days ago, and a shopper there had on nitrile gloves, but no facemask! That doesn't make much sense.

(It's also rather difficult to take off a pair of nitrile gloves without contaminating yourself with the stuff on the outside. Medical professionals have a technique for doing that, but I wouldn't expect Joe Average to execute it correctly without practice.)