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Disposal of developing chemicals at home



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 21st 04, 07:04 PM
Ian Hodge
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Default Disposal of developing chemicals at home

I am in the final stages of re-setting up my darkroom stuff and now,
having a young son, I am concerned that disposing of used dev, fix etc
down the kitchen sink may not be a good idea. Does anyone have any
comments on the safety of doing this, I am concerned that there may be
some transfer from the sink to cutlery/crockery even if I rinse the sink
really well.

Thanks

Ian
  #2  
Old August 21st 04, 08:25 PM
Gregory Blank
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The kitchen sink is definately a bad idea, and depending on what
your throwing down there and where it goes you could be in violation
of local sewer codes or you could hurt your septic system

The EPA publishes a pamphlet on effluent disposal, Eastman Kodak
has/had a number of booklets on the subject. Ultimately your
local public works dept should be able to advise you.


In article ,
Ian Hodge "i dot hodge at tiscali dot co dot uk" wrote:

I am in the final stages of re-setting up my darkroom stuff and now,
having a young son, I am concerned that disposing of used dev, fix etc
down the kitchen sink may not be a good idea. Does anyone have any
comments on the safety of doing this, I am concerned that there may be
some transfer from the sink to cutlery/crockery even if I rinse the sink
really well.

Thanks

Ian


--
LF Website @ http://members.verizon.net/~gregoryblank

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President,
or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong,
is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable
to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918
  #3  
Old August 21st 04, 09:38 PM
Nicholas O. Lindan
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"Ian Hodge" "i dot hodge at tiscali dot co dot uk" wrote

having a young son, I am concerned that disposing of used dev, fix etc
down the kitchen sink may not be a good idea.


Unless your son likes to do very strange things with the drain plumbing
I can not see any harm.

Are you sure your son is not telepathically transmitting nightmares about
'Big Hairy Things That Come Out of the Drains at Night'?

I'd be more worried about the biologicals at the bottom of the sink
trap. But then I wouldn't be much worried about those either.

In comparison with other hazards in the house B&W chemicals are close
to the bottom of the list. The worst of them may be 'Pyro', and
that's just boiled acorn juice.

In my family it is the fastidious side that suffers from odd
undiagnosable health complaints and allergies.

Look at:

http://www.respiratoryreviews.com/ja...3_hygiene.html

And make sure your son gets his full pound of dirt a day.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.

  #4  
Old August 21st 04, 11:25 PM
Ian Grant
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As your in the UK rather than our errant colonies, all the water boards are
interested in is the silver content. Actually it's the same in most parts of
the US too, I'm involved in silver recovery & photo waste discharges at
work.

The average amateur wil not cause any problems to the their local sewage
treatment works, and no-one offers a servive to collect and treat their
waste, the quantities are to small.

Yes fixer cam cause problems with a stainless steel kitchen sink but only if
not rinsed properly, it'll eat it away slowly :-) Won't be any problem in
the U-bend tho !




"Ian Hodge" "i dot hodge at tiscali dot co dot uk" wrote in message
...
I am in the final stages of re-setting up my darkroom stuff and now,
having a young son, I am concerned that disposing of used dev, fix etc
down the kitchen sink may not be a good idea. Does anyone have any
comments on the safety of doing this, I am concerned that there may be
some transfer from the sink to cutlery/crockery even if I rinse the sink
really well.

Thanks

Ian



  #5  
Old August 21st 04, 11:25 PM
Ian Grant
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Posts: n/a
Default

As your in the UK rather than our errant colonies, all the water boards are
interested in is the silver content. Actually it's the same in most parts of
the US too, I'm involved in silver recovery & photo waste discharges at
work.

The average amateur wil not cause any problems to the their local sewage
treatment works, and no-one offers a servive to collect and treat their
waste, the quantities are to small.

Yes fixer cam cause problems with a stainless steel kitchen sink but only if
not rinsed properly, it'll eat it away slowly :-) Won't be any problem in
the U-bend tho !




"Ian Hodge" "i dot hodge at tiscali dot co dot uk" wrote in message
...
I am in the final stages of re-setting up my darkroom stuff and now,
having a young son, I am concerned that disposing of used dev, fix etc
down the kitchen sink may not be a good idea. Does anyone have any
comments on the safety of doing this, I am concerned that there may be
some transfer from the sink to cutlery/crockery even if I rinse the sink
really well.

Thanks

Ian



  #6  
Old August 22nd 04, 12:01 AM
Michael Scarpitti
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Default

Ian Hodge "i dot hodge at tiscali dot co dot uk" wrote in message ...
I am in the final stages of re-setting up my darkroom stuff and now,
having a young son, I am concerned that disposing of used dev, fix etc
down the kitchen sink may not be a good idea. Does anyone have any
comments on the safety of doing this, I am concerned that there may be
some transfer from the sink to cutlery/crockery even if I rinse the sink
really well.

Thanks

Ian


Just flush woth plrnty of water. B&W chemicals are very safe.
  #7  
Old August 22nd 04, 12:37 AM
Pieter Litchfield
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At risk of inviting the wrath of the Truly Knowledgeable:

As a septic system owner and the operator of a B&W only darkroom, I worry
mostly about the silver in the fixer. I'm not a big fan of putting heavy
metals out there. I believe that the chemicals in used developer and stop
aren't much worse than the cleaners you put down the drain every day, but
since significant silver ends up in the fixer, it might be a long term
hazard to groundwater supplies as it accumulates.

There are a few ways to handle this problem:

(1) Buy a commercially available filter - see the Kodak web site.
Expensive, has a limited calendar life after first use, does a good job.
Probably not an economical solution for small volume home use.

(2) Put the exhausted fixer in a can with some steel wool. Eventually the
silver will bond to the steel wool (or so I have been told) and can be
disposed of. Of course, it you do this in your household trash, are you
really saving the environment?

(3) Get an electrostatic silver precipitator (try Porter's Camera). This is
a little electric device that causes the silver to be deposited on an anode.
It is cheap and reduces the % concentration significantly. However, not as
effective as a true filter (see 1 above).

(4) Find a friendly local commercial photo or x-ray processor who will
dispose of the fixer in their output system.


"Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote in message
ink.net...
"Ian Hodge" "i dot hodge at tiscali dot co dot uk" wrote

having a young son, I am concerned that disposing of used dev, fix etc
down the kitchen sink may not be a good idea.


Unless your son likes to do very strange things with the drain plumbing
I can not see any harm.

Are you sure your son is not telepathically transmitting nightmares about
'Big Hairy Things That Come Out of the Drains at Night'?

I'd be more worried about the biologicals at the bottom of the sink
trap. But then I wouldn't be much worried about those either.

In comparison with other hazards in the house B&W chemicals are close
to the bottom of the list. The worst of them may be 'Pyro', and
that's just boiled acorn juice.

In my family it is the fastidious side that suffers from odd
undiagnosable health complaints and allergies.

Look at:

http://www.respiratoryreviews.com/ja...3_hygiene.html

And make sure your son gets his full pound of dirt a day.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.



  #8  
Old August 22nd 04, 03:08 AM
A Concerned Contributer
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Default

You should try drinking them, or have you already?

In article ,
(Michael Scarpitti) wrote:

Just flush woth plrnty of water. B&W chemicals are very safe.

  #9  
Old August 22nd 04, 06:42 AM
Donald Qualls
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Default

A Concerned Contributer wrote:

You should try drinking them, or have you already?

In article ,
(Michael Scarpitti) wrote:


Just flush woth plrnty of water. B&W chemicals are very safe.


Here's one you can surely get away with drinking: Caffenol, a developer
made from only coffee and sodium carbonate. Coffee certainly isn't
significantly toxic, and sodium carbonate will be converted to carbon
dioxide and table salt when it reacts with acid in your stomach. Given
the way it smells, though, you're unlikely to drink any, much less a
large dose.

For that matter, old-fashioned hypo fixer (sodium thiosulfate) is the
specific antidote for cyanide poisoning (though MacGyver improvisations
aside, it has to be injected to do any good, and within about fifteen
seconds of exposure to prussic acid or potassium/sodium cyanide), and
isn't particularly toxic until it picks up a load of dissolved silver.

Beyond that, if you're not specifically sensitive to metol, you could
probably drink a small amount of D-76 without harm, though I certainly
wouldn't recommend actually trying it -- but borax isn't very toxic,
sodium sulfite is a food additive, and hydroquinone and metol are both
present in sufficiently small quantity that you'd have to drink quite a
bit of D-76 to get harmful doses. Given what it must taste like with
the amount of sulfite and borax in it, that's not very likely...

--
I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz!
-- E. J. Fudd, 1954

Donald Qualls, aka The Silent Observer
Lathe Building Pages
http://silent1.home.netcom.com/HomebuiltLathe.htm
Speedway 7x12 Lathe Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/my7x12.htm

Opinions expressed are my own -- take them for what they're worth
and don't expect them to be perfect.

  #10  
Old August 22nd 04, 09:40 AM
Dan Quinn
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Default

Ian Hodge "i dot hodge at tiscali dot co dot uk" wrote

... some transfer from the sink to cutlery/crockery even if
I rinse the sink really well.

I can't think of any photographic chemistry where trace amounts
will be of any concern. If you will be doing Homebrew, you will
encounter a few chemicals which as powders or concentrates
need very carefull handling.
Better to keep your son from Tuna, Albacore in particular. Dan
 




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