and processing anything, whether it be black and white or color, motion picture or still photo film, paper or acetate or tin plates, is dangerous. There are plenty of true stories of people who have died, birthed terribly deformed babies, etc., because of carelessness in the darkroom. Good thing that there are precautions you can take, and as long as you are safe and aware of what you are doing, you can minimize the risks involved and process film happily for decades. But always keep in mind that these things are dangerous, not toys, and can kill you if you aren't careful. That being said, here's some tips to keep your darkroom safe and yourself happily processing: First and foremost, keep all chemistry out of reach of children. If this means putting a hasp and padlock on the door to your basement, do it. If this means buying a lockable storage cabinet and coating it with Mr. Yuck stickers, do it. Everyone knows the kid who'll put anything she can grab into her mouth. If she puts any chemistry into her mouth, she will die. Always wear gloves, not leather or knit, but heavy duty latex gloves. Chemicals will stain any gloves you get, so get cheap ones, and you want them to be as non-porous as possible. You never want chemistry to come into contact with your skin. Severe allergic reactions can occur from even the most seemingly inert, and the more toxic will burn a whole in your body. Always wear gloves. Proper ventilation is fundamental. This doesn't mean a cracked window on the other side of the basement or a fan recirculating stale air in a tightly closed room. This means, according to OSHA, ten complete refreshes of all of the air in the room per hour. Fumes from chemistry are known to cause birth defects, asthma, and a host of debilitating conditions and diseases. Open that window all the way, put a huge fan in it, and process at night if you have to. That being said, if you find yourself processing more than once or twice, a gas mask is a good investment. Especially if you find yourself playing with more obscure chemicals than those needed for standard b/w negative. Color, reversal, toners, etc. all contain chemicals that are extremely hazardous, and again, even the fumes will kill you if you aren't careful. There is no limit to the amount of safety that you can exercise when playing with chemicals. I'm not joking when I say that a space-suit wouldn't be a bad idea. And of course you have to take full responsibility for anything that happens as a result of your play. If your neighbor's child ingests some sulfuric acid and dies, it's your fault. Always remember this.

ere's one I heard recently, it goes something like this: she worked for Kodak from the thirties through the fifties, before people really knew so much about the extreme toxicity of photo chemistry, and before organizations like OSHA were around to inform workers of the hazards that exist in their places of work. In the chemical development department, making prints from the box cameras that folks would send in once all the film was exposed, and then they'd get them back with their prints and a fresh roll of film inside (kind of like the disposable cameras of today except they weren't disposable: beautiful wooden cameras that people cherish now even if they can't get the film for them... but that's another web site entirely...). She was in the darkroom eight hours a day, 50 weeks a year. A darkroom that had no ventilation, no tongs for picking up prints. You just used your hands (much easier that way besides). Sure, you came home reeking of D-76 and fix every night, but it wasn't really hazardous.... Then, several years later, she noticed that the yellow stains she would get on her hands from repeatedly dunking them into the stop to fetch out prints were starting to turn brown. then they started turning purple. then green. then black. And then they stopped being restricted to her hands, too. They starting showing up on her arms, on her chest, on her legs, then on her face. She started wearing gloves, thinking maybe it was the chemistry, but by this point it was way too late. In a while, she got to the point where all she had to do was walk within ten feet of the door to the darkroom, just close enough to get a good whiff of the fumes, and her body would be break out in splotches and boils reminiscent of Kaposi's. Needless to say, she died of an extremely aggressive form of cancer a few years later.... The whole idea is to be so safe that it's not even a question of messing something up. Develop safe habits early and you'll avoid problems down the road. These suggestions are just starting points. You can get MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) for any chemicals from your local OSHA office (in the blue pages in your phone book). These will tell you in detail what's hazardous and what precautions you should take. You can also go to the library: any decent darkroom book published in the last fifteen years will have ample suggestions for maintaining safety in your processing.