Ryuji wrote not so long ago that in a sewer, the silver quickly becomes
silver sulphide (there's no shortage of sulphur!), and that compound is
very insoluble and effectively inert.
========================== At 11:06 PM 10/09/2005, you wrote:
On 9/10/05, Stefan Kahlert <<mailto:s.kahlert@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>s.kahlert@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
That's true for unused or desilvered fixer. Loaded with silver it
becomes rather toxic for most of the environment.
This topic got me reading again about the toxicity of silver-rich fixer, especially in regards to claims that it acts as a bactericide and will kill off the 'good processing bacteria' at the sewerage treatment plant.
Then I came across this post here <http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00BSoD>http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00BSoD which talks about ionic silver being the culprit. But if the ionic silver in the fixer has had a chance to form insoluble precipitates on its way to the sewerage treatment plant, then would it not be in a rather unreactive form and consequently not dangerous?
Now I'm definitely not advocating pouring fixer down the drain, I just wonder how much of a problem the silver would actually be.
Disclaimer: I'm not a chemist....
regards Peter
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