Treatment of Fungus Attack on Transparencies

[nick_sofroniou]

I have several boxes of colour transparencies, circa 1983, that are in

glassless plastic mounts and stored in plastic boxes. Upon inspection

recently I noticed a white fungus had appeared on about 10% of the

slides, this starts as a white speck but grows into a `spidery' like

structure and is on the emulsion side.

 

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Does anyone have any suggestions for how the fungus can be treated to

save the slides, or will I just have to get them duplicated.

 

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Is there some way I can prevent this in the future, all my negatives

stored in archival negative files are fine from this period, so how

might I store mounted transparencies, and would I be better off with

glass mounts.

 

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Many thanks

 

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Nick

[twmeyer]

hello nick, full sympathies on the fungal attack, rewashing might

help, i'm not sure. you will want to isolate those spores on the

effected film from your uncontaminated films and buy a dehumidifier.

climate control is the only permenant solutions. keep your lenses dry

too, that fungus likes the coatings inside and out on your finest

glass as well....good luck, tom.

[h._r.]

If you rewash your films, you might use formaldehyde,

which should kill the fungus and stop their progression.

It also hardens the gelatin layer.

This chemical is toxic (wear gloves).

 

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Good luck, Hugues

[nick_sofroniou]

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

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At the moment I'm trying to get hold of further information on the

long-term consequences of some of the chemical treatments which I have

had suggested to me.

 

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Nick

[dax_young]

Hi Nick,

I have the same problem and have found by just rewashing the slides in Photoflow or similar stuff then storing them in a drycabinet (once they're dry)that the problem is usually solved. Be careful tho' when washing the slides not to scratch them.

Dax