How bad of an idea is it to mix commercially made silver gelatin emulsion, denatured alcohol and get it air born?

I ask because I am doing it the taste in my mouth is bad...of course I'm wearing a respirator, but I still am getting a little.

Thanks!

Corey

I don't know how toxic it is, but your respirator is not fitting properly if you can get a taste in your mouth.

I'm sorry, I should clarify a little...

I am spraying the emulsion with a air powered paint sprayer...

Gatsby 1923, I will tighten up the straps, thank you for encouraging that.

It depends on what is in the emulsion. There can be chemicals in them that are not good, such as cadmium and some organics.

No airborn particulate matter is good for your lungs.

PE

Isn't the silver bad enough? It just dawned on me...

As PE said, several of the emulsion chemicals are potentially hazardous.

You might consider building or buying a glove box - very useful for containing/controlling various hazmats.

Silver halide itself is so insoluable that in and of itself, it is not a serious hazard chemically, but any aerosolized chemical is at least not good for you. Hardeners are among the worst actors in emulsions, not the silver.

PE

For an example of a portable, controlled atmosphere working environment, Take a look here: http://www.coleparmer.com/catalog/product_view.asp?sku=3366650&pfx=EW

Thanks Guys for the info.

As far as the cole parmer item, I don't think it would be very easy to use something like that, but perhaps a more substantial hood than what I have would be in order.

Colloidal silver will turn you blue. Silver compounds will turn you blue much slower. :P

If you are spraying emulsions regularly I suggest you use an air-line respirator. This provides fresh air at a constant rate at a slight positive pressure, so you never breathe in any air from the darkroom itself.

Back in the 70's and 80's I coated thousands of litres of B&W emulsion using a sraygun, we always used air-line respirators fed off the compressor which was housed outside the darkroom and supplied with fresh air from outside the other side of the factory to the darkroom extractor fan. I should add the extractor fan was extremely efficient.

Some of the additions to the emuklsion like hardeners etc would not be good for you to breathe in. We also sprayed all our processing chemicals, again using the air-line respirators.

Ian