sam vimes
Well-known member
When I said they do use it in my local shop I didn't mean everyone else uses it...I really have no idea how many shops still use it.
As I said earler though, if the yellow is coming off the maggots onto your fingers i'd be very supicious as it can't have been injested by the maggots.
I knew what you meant. The doubt arises because some claim a blanket "they" definitely still use Chrysoidine for bronze maggots. Others claim that it was banned in the eighties (it wasn't banned at all, as far as I can tell). Many shops don't colour their own maggots. Some shops swear blind that Chrysoidine isn't used. Many have no idea what their suppliers use. There's no doubt in my mind that, whatever they are using, it's invariably a surface dye, that doesn't automatically mean it is Chrysoidine though.
However, when there's an alternative to Chrysoidine, there was such a fuss over its use, and H&S regulations are what they are, it amazes me that anyone in the tackle trade would be taking the risk with a suspect carcinogen. Sounds like a ruinous law suit waiting to happen. The problem is that a bronze maggot user may struggle with absolute proof that their cancer was caused by bronze maggots. However, I still suspect that using a carcinogen in this way will still be breaking all sorts of H&S legislation.
The biggest issue is that there seems to be quite a few different dyes which are known as variations of "Chrysoidine" (Chrysoidine A, B, G, J, M, Y and R, plus a whole lot more). There doesn't appear to be one single Chrysoidine product. Perhaps what was known as Chrysoidine in the eighties is not the same stuff as is being used now? Looking at the Coshh datasheets for the variations I can find, there's nothing in them to suggest that they are carcinogens. Plenty of other good reasons that the Saturday boy shouldn't be using them in the back of a tackle shop though.