OSHA Darkroom Visits

OSHA has been on campus most of this spring semester. I was first alerted to their presence a few months ago when I heard someone trying to get into my office / the darkroom between classes when I had my door closed and was eating lunch. I had 2 women talk to me about the different chemisty we use down there along with training I had (or didn't have). Lots of questions. I sprinted down the hall to my afternoon class showing up about 30 seconds late, and I don't know if they fully bought my line of "OSHA showed up unexpectedly and I was talking to them about what goes on in the darkroom!"

In the following few days, I had a few calls from them as well: they wanted me to clarify a few things, but it was nothing egregious. Mostly about the respirator I had for disposing of some chemisty that I "inherited" when I started teaching at Concordia a few years back - like if I was "fit" for it, medically cleared to wear it, and if I was required to wear it or if it was just "at will." (Not fit, not medically cleared, but just used "at will" which made those issues less problematic.)

Then a 3rd person from OSHA wanted to meet with me in the darkroom a few weeks after that. I thought it was a quick "clarifing" meeting like the last 2 phone calls, but it was an all-out meeting that took my entire lunch time between classes. He was excited to be in a darkroom for the first time as he said "now I can tell my kids I've been in one of those 'orange rooms' like you see in movies and on TV!"

And then he called back 2 times as well, with more questions. His big concerns were with one thing that we used in the darkroom: the PhotoFlo or Wetting Agent. He had no concerns with the students using / touching / breathing in this chemisty, but his concerns were with the few seconds it takes me to mix a batch. It contains less than 5% formaldehyde, and that was concerning to him - again, only while at FULL STRENGTH as I'm mixing it as the students use it at a 1:99 dilution, and only as the last step of processing film (something that only happens a few times all semester). His concerns were like "How long does it take to you mix this? And it's just 2 times/semester? So just 4 times/year? And do you mix it by your face? Is there ever concerns about getting splash-back on your face?" (The answers were 40-60 seconds, yes, yes, no, and no.)

So then Concordia was cited with not having done proper training for me in the darkroom, and that we only had digital copies of the MSDS and not printed copies. (And there were other departments that didn't have MSDS handy, so that was an issue in other spots around campus as well.)

Long story short, I have MSDS printed and outside of the darkroom, and I had to take 4 online "courses" to make sure I know how to be safe with the chemicals in the darkroom.

I now have these 4 super fancy certficates to my name: "Intro to OSHA" (that needed to be a course?), "Material Handling Safety," "Personal Protective Equipment Awareness," and "Respiratory Protection:"

And now the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) - now commonly known as Safety Data Sheets (SDS) - are just outside the darkroom:

Bound and tabbed.

The solution to the formaldehyde in the Sprint brand PhotoFlo was to simply get rid of it. So the last batch of mixed PhotoFlo is currently being used, and then we'll have no more. I easily found a Kodak version ("Kodak Photo-Flo 200 Solution") that does the same thing (helps keep water spots from forming when the negatives are drying) that does NOT contain formaldehyde. I'll be purchasing that for the fall semester.

Likewise, the solution for me having a respirator that I wasn't fit for or medically cleared to wear was also to just make it go away. It's not something I need for any of my day-to-day work in the darkroom - it was purchased for me only because I requested it when I was disposing of a lot of "spent," unlabeled chemisty that had been saved in the back corner of the darkroom when I started teaching at Concordia. We went through Safety-Kleen to get a hazardous waste drum and I dumped it all in there a few years ago.

OSHA's happy, and I'm happy. :)