Digital BW, The Print

" Xtol is that it is environmentally much more benign than the older
developers."

If I remember correctly, Xtol is citric acid based.

Scott


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Roark" 
<paul.roark@v...> wrote:
> John,
> 
> > Back in the 70's  I worshiped Weston. When I was working at the 
Center in
> > Tucson I saw a series of portraits that Wynn Bullock did of him 
as he was
> > dying of Parkinsons. They were so sad. Edward used the extremely 
toxic
> > developer Pyro for his negatives and the equally nasty  Amidol 
for his
> > prints.
> > His hands turned black from using this stuff and it eventually 
killed him,
> > destroyed his nervous system, long before he should have left 
this earth.
> 
> I had never heard the Pyro and Amidol were implicated in his 
Parkinson's
> disease.  
> 
> When I -- perhaps foolishly -- indicated on my house plans the spot 
where a
> darkroom would be, the city would not OK the plans without knowing 
more
> about what I was going to use.  I gathered all the Material Safety 
Data
> Sheets and gave them to the city (of Solvang, CA).  Oddly, it was 
the
> Microdol X that bothered them the most.  I had to agree to develop 
no more
> than 3 rolls per day.  They felt some chemical in the developer 
posed to
> risk to their sewer and water treatment systems.  Apparently a big 
reason
> for Xtol is that it is environmentally much more benign than the 
older
> developers.
> 
> > Chemicals also eventually killed my teacher Todd Walker and put 
another of
> > my teachers in the hospital with liver poisoning.  Todd named 
each of his
> > tumors after the various processes that he specialized in.
> 
> As an aside, my Dad grew up with Walker.  They were ham radio and 
darkroom
> buddies through high school and until Todd moved to Tucson.  (They 
lived in
> Southern California at the time.)  Unrelated, my Dad's old 
childhood house
> address in Tucson is now a parking structure at the U of A, very 
close to
> the Center for Creative Photography.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com