photography chemicals a cause for AA?

[Krista]

I'm not sure, that's what my science professor said. It makes sense, given that I was taking a darkroom photography course at the time, but I've never heard of these chemicals causing AA. Has anybody else heard of this? I have heard, however, that AA is caused by a general chemical sensitivity to certain things, and I tend to believe this. I'm writing a paper on AA for school, so any help would be much appreciated.

[Neil Cuadra]

I asked a photographer I know, to see if he had read anything about it. He said that in past years darkroom chemicals for color printing did indeed contain chemicals that could be a health concern, such as formaldehyde, while chemicals for black and white printing were fairly benign. He also said chemicals for color printing in recent years are much safer.

We'd all like to know exactly what caused our diseases, but it's usually hard if not impossible to pinpoint. Genetic predisposition? Our general environment? Long-term exposure to a particular substance? A single incident? It's a shame that so many cases of AA remain idiopathic (cause unknown).