On dust, cold fingers and woodworking

[RogerS]

I paid for myself to go for a Health MOT today. A very fortuitous choice of company as well as the other string to their bow is occupational health.

She told me a couple of things that I didn't know but suspected.

First, her view is that if you can smell the wood being worked then it means you are breathing in the very nasty fine dust. I kind of suspected this.

Second, if you, like me, have poor circulation in your fingers (incipient Reynaud's or full-blown Reynaud's) then if it is cold you really should wear something on your hands to keep them warm as poor circulation and the vibration from machines is a recipe to make it get much worse.

The other thing she mentioned and which I'd never given a second thought to was checking for chest cancer. She'd spent a lot of time in an oncology department and while there was very very surprised at the number of men with breast/chest cancer.

Did all the usual other things. Apparently I have the lungs of someone 20 years younger than me [/smug mode off]

And my PSA was well below any level for concern which was good.

 

[dickm]

Second, if you, like me, have poor circulation in your fingers (incipient Reynaud's or full-blown Reynaud's) then if it is cold you really should wear something on your hands to keep them warm as poor circulation and the vibration from machines is a recipe to make it get much worse..

Be careful with that suggestion; two reasons. First, gloves and rotating machinery are the ideal recipe for non-surgical amputation of fingers. Second, if you do wear gloves, make sure that they are a relatively loose fit (which of course, makes them even more dangerous near machines) because even slight static pressure can activate the Reynauds.
But from personal experience, agree that the temperature and vibration aspects are critical; my Reynauds activates just from the slight vibration of the car steering wheel when driving if the temperature is much below 18C. So if working in lower temperatures, a fan heater blowing directly on to hands seems to be the only solution.