selenium shelf life

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Hi all- Have a gallon of se toner (stock-fully stoppered) for about a year and was thinking of using it soon. What signs should I be on the look out for, suggesting the solution is no longer useable? Ive already been told to filter it before use. Any and all thougts appreciated. deb

-- Debra Rozin (PhilnDebra@aol.com), February 03, 2000

Answers

Shouldn't be any problems. The stock has a very long shelf life. I have never had any go bad, even after several years in a partially used bottle.

Diluted, I just use it until it doesn't give be the changes I want.

-- Jim Steele (jdsteele@erols.com), February 03, 2000.


It will outlast you. Selenium toner is mineral and even when diluted lasts an incredibly long time. The filtering you mentioned is only if you can see impurities in the diluted used portion. I have had and used a 1:5 solution for over a year and it keeps working fine. I know that soon it will become exhausted so I will dump it down the drain. James

-- Mr.Lumberjack (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), February 04, 2000.

Some questions come again and again ...

James

Selenium toner is too toxic to be disposed of in the sewer or a septic system.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), February 04, 2000.


This is going to be a controversial answer--not to the original question but to Tom's reply above.

I think of myself a strong environmentalist, but one has to put things in perspective.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1) Do you eat meat, dairy and other animal products? 2) Do you buy inorganically produced foods? 3) Do you use pesticides, herbicides and/or fungicides in your garden? 4) Do you own a car?

If you have answered Yes to any of the above--and most people in the industrialized world would answer Yes to all of them!--you contribute far more to the destruction of the environment than you do by flushing small quantities of darkroom chemicals down the drain.

Consider also that a large industrial facility puts more toxins into the environment in one minute than the average home darkroom user does in a lifetime.

And then there is the matter of gelatin, an absolutely essential substance to photography. Do you know where it comes from? The hooves of cows and horses. Do you have any idea of the kind of inhumane suffering animals go through during the process of slaughter?

-- Peter Hughes (leo948@yahoo.com), February 04, 2000.


I have been a wastewater plant operator so I know where I speaketh from. From very solid ground. Putting 10 oz of the naturally occuring mineral Selenium down the toilet or into the septic tank once a month or so has no harmful enviromental effects. In a sewer system the dilution rate would be hard to figure out but since that's my job I could do it for you and as for the septic systems, none other than John Sexton disposes of it in that way and his septic system works just fine.

-- Mr.Lumberjack (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), February 05, 2000.


The previous post has been edited; an off-topic diatribe has been removed.

-- Mason Resnick (bwworld@mindspring.com), February 05, 2000.

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