August 28, 2007, from Lloyd Erlick, It distresses me to see the contention that there is no reason to use alkaline or neutral fixer. My reason for using a non-acid fix is elimination of two important sources of darkroom odour (and danger, too, especially if one has respiratory compromise) -- sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. By suspending use of acid in my darkroom (no acid stop, no acid fix) I have eliminated both of these darkroom irritants. Eliminated. I have modest darkroom ventilation (probably like most people) but it is not responsible for protecting me from sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. Much better than great big fans is -- no sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. This is not a small thing for me. Either of these gases in the smallest amount stops me cold. I don't have asthma, I just hate them irrationally. Having a darkroom with a normal atmosphere is extremely important, and a very good reason to use non-acid darkroom processing methods. regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. website: www.heylloyd.com telephone: 416-686-0326 email: portrait@xxxxxxxxxxxx ________________________________ -- ============================================================================================================= To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) and unsubscribe from there.