Thread: Nano-Particels: risk for our healthiness?

Dear friends,

we're more often reading that the fine dust can influence our healthinnes (referring to the diesel vehicle scandal).
Somewere I've read that particles with size of 0.1µm (micrometer) or smaller can enter the alveoli-cells in our lung after breathing them in.
I gues its because the osmose cell-transport is possible for particle size <= 0.1µm.

There also have been discussions about the influence of aluminum to our body. Not sure how this is applicable to the aluminum-oxide...
Anyhow I am quite sure I don't want to have that diamond or CrOx particles inside of my body.

Reading about "how tatoo works" I've learned that our body is capable to transport particles which are smaller than roundabout 6 nanomenters (this effect is used to "eraze" tatoos by crashing the relativeley large (~50nm) particles by a lazer to smaller so that our body can transport them of).

Putting the information above together I see 2 areas:

• Particles in range 0.1µm - 6nm can enter our skin/lung and will most likely stay locally (e.g. inside the skin cells) and eventually do some bad stuff
• Particles smaller than 6nm can enter our body and can be transported inside to other organs

As a honers we may get in contact with such small sizes as:

• diamond/chromium... - pastes/sprays
• broken down slurry of natural stones (jnat, thuringian, welsh slates etc.)

I do have diamond pastes (I've used to polish some river rocks) but have always used them with rubber gloves (not sure if they really help...)
I do hone without gloves and by this get in contact with the broken down slurry of natural stones.
My Linen strop is pasted by chromium oxide on its backside which I seldomly use to strop my knifes.

What do you mean gentlemen, is it something we should be carefull with or am I reading too much into things here?

Please let me know your thoughts on that.

Happy honing!

Wow, you've done some research. I can't answer about the honing and stropping compounds, but I would say using buffers and cutting/sanding scale material is probably muchmore of a concern because of the sheer volume of small of particles they put into the air ( and lungs if you don't use a respirator). Some wood dust can actually be toxic if breathed.

Originally Posted by Philipp78

What do you mean gentlemen, is it something we should be carefull with or am I reading too much into things here?


Happy honing!

There is your answer right there, unless you are honing on commercial scale in which case you can put on a respirator then no issue at all.

If there is going to be a lot of dust in the air maybe using a face mask like what people use when spray painting. Also I don't think small particles from natural stones are going to be any more harmful then getting some dirt on your hands.

Originally Posted by mainaman

There is your answer right there, unless you are honing on comercial scale in which case you can put on a respirator and then no issue at all.

Thanks for feedback, actually the example of the lung was given in relation to the fine dust diesel-discussions.

Osmose is a common transport mechanism, and working also for our skin.

So I guess in Honer-Case we‘re more talking about the entering of those particles through the skin of our hands.

But you’re probably right, there is another stuff people are dealing with which sauses much more damage

Most of the particles we come into contact with as honers are wet. This pretty much keeps them from being airborne, so no worries about breathing them in any significant quantities. If you do any dry cutting or lapping of stones it's a different story.

I try to eat healthy and avoid as many processed foods as i can, don't smoke or drink. Other than that i would drive myself crazy worrying about such things as artificial ingredients in my shave soap, fluoride and chlorine in my city drinking water (and the water i shower with which can also be absorbed through my skin) and a million other chemical or other hazards that i can't avoid without moving to a remote place in Alaska and living off the land.(where i would have to worry about freezing to death or not getting enough food for the winter). As was said before, if you are doing it on a commercial bases then invest in a good ventilation system or respirator. Don't let your worries take the fun away from your hobby (or life)JMHO

I'd be way more worried about working in a heavy industrial or living in a heavy air born pollution area. Most people even heavy experiment type honers don't do it more that 2 hours a week and the water will keep the particles from going airborne. If you are really worried or possibly sensitive to whatever is in the hones I would get some surgical gloves and learn to hone wearing those which might not be a bad idea if someone is honing several hours every day.

Thanks for the concern Philipp and information!