Timbers and Health.

[Paul.J]

Just found this while looking to find out what Petes Sumach is :?
Some interesting effects on their :shock:
Paul.J.

 

[Gordon T]

It makes you take stock of your own dust control systems doesn't it!!
Very sobering
GT

 

[CHJ]

Thanks for that link Paul, added to my sheet.

 

[Mark Hancock]

It's been well known for a number of years that it not just exotic/foreign but all timbers that can cause health problems. I know of turners who suddenly develop a reaction to a specific timber. In my own case I now have to be careful with walnut. In an extreme case, a friend can no longer turn as she became allergic to all wood dust.
Just be careful and sensible.

 

[beejay]

Thanks for that one Paul. :shock:
Im leaning now towards Oragami,,,only paper cuts to worry about
regards,beejay

 

[rsser]

In 1996 the US Society of Industrial Hygienists declared wood dust to be a carcinogen on par with asbestos.

The nose and upper throat are the sites most vulnerable.

Scary stuff.

 

[Paul.J]

Hello Ern and welcome

rsser wrote
In 1996 the US Society of Industrial Hygienists declared wood dust to be a carcinogen on par with asbestos.

The nose and upper throat are the sites most vulnerable.

Scary stuff.
Just makes you wonder how safe we really are even using all the safety gear :shock:
Paul.J.

 

[CHJ]

About the same as drinking lots of soft drinks containing Aspartame* I should think.
Hopefully we will all behave with caution and live long enough to enjoy and not regret such an absorbing hobby and or profession.

*the origin of which I believe was as a nerve poison or similar and I seem to recall that one of the individuals signing up to its approval had interests in its production.

See Wiki

 

[Bodrighy]

Let's face it we live in a pretty wierd country with double standards. Mercury is a banned substance in every industry that I am aware of, except dentistry. If any of you have had fillings in your back teeth done on the NHS you are walking around with mercury in your mouth.

Pete

 

[CHJ]

Frightened my dentist to death a few years ago when I asked him not to use amalgam and use alternate more expensive substance, the literature I supplied him with to do an effective COSHH assessment following our discussion saw the removal of all mercury from his surgery, he now avoids the disturbance of existing amalgam if at all possible.

 

[rsser]

Thanks for your welcome Paul. Good to be here.

... Occ Health people used to talk about safe levels of exposure to asbestos; no longer. Same with wood dust. The bad stuff is the tiny particles so whatever control system you go for the smaller it filters the better.

I use a DC, box air scrubber, and when sanding, a filtered visor.

And two non-scientific tests: swelling sinuses (only works with some species), and the good ole snot colour test.

 

[Paul.J]

So it seems that we are all been poisoned slowly in one way or another :shock:
Just feel that without resps and extraction you would breath in a lot more dust in a short time.
Paul.J.

 

[CHJ]

So it seems that we are all been poisoned slowly in one way or another :shock:
Just feel that without resps and extraction you would breath in a lot more dust in a short time.
Paul.J.

Like most things Paul, without getting too paranoid about any particular hazard, once you are aware of it, it makes sense to limit the risk if practicable.

A bit like driving around a radar research flight line with a fluorescent tube propped up in the van, far safer than relying totaly on a deep in thought boffin not to switch on his trials radar to check something.

Or stop blowing the dust out of luminous cockpit clocks in for checking when you hear that dozens of women who used to paint the dials had died at an early age with cancer. (they licked the bristles to get a fine point).

My current biggest must stop habit is taking off the face mask immediately I've finishing sanding or before I clean up and taken off my coverall and given it a shake outside.

 

[Bodrighy]

From the moment that we are born we are dying, some of us take longer to do it than others. The trick is to do it as slowly as possible and to enjoy the time as much as possible. If we listen to all the 'expets' who say that this that and the other thing knocks off a year of our life we should all have died years ago unlee we had a very long life planned ahead for us. :lol:

Seriously I recognise the need to take sensible precautions but at the end of the day name one thing that isn't potentially dangerous toi someone somewhere, at sometime.

Pete

 

[Paul.J]

I suppose i should have incorporated the other post The old days on with this post.
Just seems that some people can withstand dust allergies etc,like Dennis White.
Yet someone who does it as a hobby for short periods of time seems to suffer,like Mark Hancocks friend.
Paul.J.

 

[rsser]

True enough.

And the difficulty in being guided by research is that findings are expressed in terms of probabilities, not certainties. I know blokes who've worked with asbestos for years in plumbing applications and have had no problems (even after the 25 year latency period). So there must be other things in the causal mix that we don't know about.

That said, Pascal's wager is not a bad guide: we may not cop cancer without precautions but why risk death by foregoing minor efforts?

 

[hellier0437]

sort of off topic, but yew trees are poisonous to apples, is it therefore the case that items turned from yew are poisonous? eg to eat/drink off/out of

 

[dickm]

True enough.

So there must be other things in the causal mix that we don't know about.

That said, Pascal's wager is not a bad guide: we may not cop cancer without precautions but why risk death by foregoing minor efforts?

Certainly there's usually more than one cause involved. SWMBO did her research on childhood leukaemia many moons ago, and one of the initiaters/promoters appeared to be childhood infectious diseases. So it doesn't even have to be what we normally think of as a carcinogen.

I'm with Pascal all the way :shock:

 

[CHJ]

sort of off topic, but yew trees are poisonous to apples, is it therefore the case that items turned from yew are poisonous? eg to eat/drink off/out of

It is on record that Yew was regularly used in earlier times to make drinking vessels, but so was lead, there are few records available to show how much of the shorter life expectancy recorded for those eras is due to the use of either.

I personally would not contemplate using Yew wood for any utensil that was destined to come into contact with moist food or drinks.

When there are recorded cases of a dead horse being found with Yew leaves in its mouth that had not even been swallowed I am inclined to treat it very much as a beautiful display item and stick to bland sycamore or beech for culinary uses.

 

[duncanh]

In The Woodturning magazine from March 2007 (issue 172) the timber featured by Dr Sally Francis was yew and here are a couple of quotes...

"The major downside of yew is that it's timber is toxic and so can only be used to decorative items",
"Yew's toxicity both via it's foliage and timber..."

Interestingly enough, in the same issue there's an article by Bill Care on turning a nutmeg grinder from yew