Thread: Working with toxic woods

eeek i have been working with maple. im scared

Originally Posted by jballs918

eeek i have been working with maple. im scared

You're wearing a filter though, right?

no i had no idea. im so used to working with pine lol

okay, I haven't worked with a lot of woods, but I do have a problem with ebony, found that out early. as soon as I'd start making dusk it was like I get hit in the face with a cat (which I'm alergic to) eyes would start itching like mad, reddening and swelling, coughing, sneezing. fortunately it didn't take much fo rme to figure it out.

I've also heard that some people can have reactions to cocobolo and that is why if you're buying something with grips made from it you should know ahead of time if you react to it.

Red

I trained as a cabinet maker after leaving school and although I never worked in the industry I made guitars as a hobby for many years. There are a number of very serious things to know when working with wood and it’s scary that there are many people out there that don’t know the basics.

The wood dust problem is a given and everyone should protect themselves when working with any wood because sawdust is carcinogenic and luckily this fact is pretty widely know, but on top of that there are a number of woods that will give you a splinter that can become toxic in your body if not removed promptly. These woods aren’t all exotic either – it’s highly recommended that a splinter from cedar is removed as soon as is humanly possible.

Also, not everyone knows that even if you don’t suffer ill effects when wood working , allergic reactions such as skin, eye and repertory irritation from any type of wood can creep up on you after extended periods of exposure if you don’t take the proper precautions when working it. Some species can even become an allergen if you are doing your best – I know of people that have become unable to work some woods if they have any skin showing on their body as the exposed areas become affected.

But now for the biggy – there is a product that all of us have worked with at some point and it’s a real killer – the glue that holds the wood fibres together in MDF contains formaldehyde and this stuff will rip your insides into shreds if you’re making dust from it without a mask. It may have been an urban myth that woodwork tutors tell their students or there may be some recorded incident in the pages of history but a story that has stuck with me for a long time was that of a local wood worker who worked in the medium of MDF for many many years without taking the necessary precautions and went to the toilet one day and passed blood, he went to the doctor who gave him some pretty bad news and died a week later of cancer caused by the inadvertent consumption of MDF dust. As I say it may be a fact or it may be an illustration but it’s always stuck with me.

Do you need to wear a mask if you're sawing & sanding by hand?

if you're outside using a hand saw then you'll likely be ok unless you're short sighted and hunkered over your wood, sanding on the other hand kicks up dust that you'll never see - anyone whose been sanding and blows their nose afterwards will testify so i'd say masking up when sanding is sound and safe advice