These were all hand-printed on big machines we called one-armed bandits. They were all printed in PVC inks, and because it is a big print area, there’s a lot of ink going down onto the job. We used to run those for a day and by the end of the day the solvents in the shop were awful.  Even though we had exhaust fans going, they still couldn’t keep up with them. So the fumes got into the factory next door and they complained. So we had occupational health and safety come out and check us out. 

When they did come out, we were printing on a smaller machine, and only quite small sheets. My partner Jim Hopwood was operating the machine and I was racking, and they fitted us up with little vacuum pumps on our belts with a filter up here on our collar. We had to print through for an hour while they monitored. Then they took it all away. Checked their filters out when they got back to
their lab I imagine. They passed us okay after they got their results back after about three or four weeks.

Actually, they didn’t want to tell us. We were classed as the enemy, I suppose. They didn’t give us the results, but we did eventually find out. Naturally with the ink that we were using, which was CIC PVC ink, they were in touch with the manufacturers too, to find out what was in the ink. Those inks were being used for years and all of a sudden they began to find out what was going on. This would have been the early days of occupational health coming into the industry.

Brian Waghorn

Print’s Past excerpts are drawn from interviews held by Benjamin Thorn, curator of the Armidale Museum of  Printing, and are due to be published in a forthcoming book.

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.  

Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter