Safety & Cleanliness


Children

Keep Chemicals locked away from small children, they will drink anything!

Toxicity

These chemicals are all toxic if ingested and potentially harmful if they come in contact with your skin (they will not burn your skin) - you should not be dipping your hands into your print trays or in any way touching the solutions - some of these will be absorbed into your skin and may cause skin allergies or health problems later in life - don't risk it!
Having said that, occasionally, for whatever reason, you may have to grab a print with your bare hands while it is still covered in chemical, or you might spill some chemical on your skin. I wouldn't worry to much about accidental contact - just don't make a habit of it.
Use print tongs for your print solutions - you will need 3 or 4 pairs depending on what you are doing.

See these links for CHEMICAL COMPOSITION and TOXICITY information -
Photographic Chemical Descriptions:
Photographic Safety:

See this link for Kodaks Photo Lab Health and Safety information -
Kodak Photo Lab Health and Safety:

Darkroom Location

A termporary Darkroom may be set up in a Bathroom or Laundry room, but because of the toxicity - NEVER in the Kitchen!

Cleanup

Upon completion of your processing sessions, always thoroughly rinse your print trays, tongs, beakers, etcetera, with clean running water. Give your print trays a good firm scrub with your fingers while rinsing. The plastic trays will stain over time - this will not affect future processing sessions as long as residual chemicals are removed from their surface during washing.

Ventilate

Proper ventilation is important - after an hour or so, there will be enough chemical vapors in the confines of your darkroom that you will be able to "taste" the fixer (not very pleasant and I'm sure...not very healthy).
See Ventilation

Wash Your hands

When doing processing (the "wet" side of your darkroom) make sure that you rinse your hands (soap is not necessary) and dry them before you move back to the "dry" side of you room and touch that expensive paper. Any chemical residue on your fingers will contaminate your unprocessed print paper, enlarger and easel and can damage equipment or produce ugly stains and / or streaks on your finished prints.

Clothing

Chemicals can permanently stain your clothes - don't wear something that you care about.

Food

NO FOOD in the darkroom - remember - toxic chemicals are very easy to transfer from your hands or surfaces, to your food.



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