Product Description

This indispensable guide covers all the risks faced by photographers, lab personnel, and others involved with photographic chemicals and discusses how to ensure their health and safety. Coverage includes setting up a safe workplace, a review of which chemicals are harmful in various types of photographic processes, health issues in conservation and restoration, and right-to-know laws.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #743311 in Books
• Brand: Watson Guptill
• Published on: 1991-09-01
• Released on: 1991-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
Accessibly written for the practicing photographer, this should be required reading for all working or merely seeking pleasure in photography -- Alpha Newsletter

It is a classic in the field and belongs in the library of every school, university, film lab and photographer. If you buy and read only one new book this year, make it this one -- ASMP, NorCal

Shaw and Rossol's well-organized compendium of explanations and precautions for photographic workers is outstanding in the way that the material is organized and cross-referenced. . . . Recommended for all libraries -- Choice

Speaks with authority on matters vital to a lot of photographers and photo lab workers -- Photo Life, Canada

Susan Shaw and Monona Rossol have done a great service in writing Overexposure. This book offers a clear and concise treatment of the subject of health and safety in photography, without using a sensationalistic tone -- New Hampshire Arts

This book should be as essential as film to a photographer setting up a safety and health program. It would also be a useful tool for industrial hygienists with responsibility for photographers. . . . The information is not presented as a sermon, and it is genuinely helpful. It should be required reading for all teachers of photography -- AIHA

This inexpensive book should be available in every laboratory involved with photography -- Bulletin Microscopial Society of Canada

This is an excellent book for the darkroom worker with invaluable tips about the potential hazards present in the darkroom. Buy it -- Camera and Darkroom Photography

Valuable reading for people involved in health and safety training, and essential reading for anyone in the field of photography--including students, instructors and lab technicians--concerned about toxic chemicals and their potentially dangerous effects -- Communication Arts

About the Author
Susan D. Shaw is an environmental scientist, author, and photographer. Her dual training in photography and in public health and environmental toxicology culminated in her writing the acclaimed first edition of Overexposure. She is the founder and president of the Marine Environmental Research Institute in New York City.

Monona Rossol is a chemist, artist, and industrial hygienist. She is the founder and president of ACTS (Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety), a not-for-profit corporation based in New York City and dedicated to providing health and safety services to the arts. She is also the author of Stage Fright: Health and Safety in the Theater and The Artist's Complete Health and Safety Guide (Allworth Press).

Customer Reviews

Required reading for all photographers
Anyone who sets foot in a darkroom should read this book. A little scary at times, but information you need to be aware of. Especially important for creative workers who often forget about the side effects of the materials they work with.

Worst book I ever read on this subject.
It has been a long time since I read this book. In my opinion, it is the worst book I have ever read on this subject of toxicology in photography. I have serious doubts if Ms. Shaw is a toxicologist, and it seems to be something written by someone who has an hysterical fear of any chemicals.

I am not recommending that people drink photographic solutions or inhale the crushed crystals that are the components of many of these solutions, but a little common sense (that may be rare in our society these days) would keep most photographers out of trouble.

Dr. Richard J. Henry's book, "Controls in Black and White Photography -- Second Edition" contains a chapter on laboratory safety for photographers. He was an MD and a practicing research chemist by profession. This book is sadly out of print, but you may be able to get a copy. It is very good.

http://www.amazon.com/Controls-Black-White-Photography-Richard/dp/0240517881/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242386103&sr=1-1

Another book, "The Dose makes the Poison", written by a professional toxicologist, M. Alice Ottoboni, is a much better book on this subject.

http://www.amazon.com/Dose-Makes-Poison-Plain-Language-Toxicology/dp/0471288373/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242385830&sr=1-2