Rosewood reaction

[Ray Chalenski]

Has anyone here had an allergic reaction when cutting,milling or turning rosewood? I recently made some pens and turkey pots out of rosewood and the day after I developed an itchy rash on my cheeks ,neck and a little on the back of my hands. Would like to know if this is common and how and what to do to avoid this reaction. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Ray:confused:

[Dave Anthony]

I had the same thing happen to me, except I only got the rash on my cheeks. I don't know how to avoid/minimize
it other than good dust collection and shower immediately.

[Dave Zellers]

So is this where the expression 'rosy cheeks' comes from?:cool:

[Tom Fischer]

I had a bad reaction once from putting Garapa through a thickness planer. Similar to a poison ivy reaction.
Garapa is from South America, cheap alternative to Ipe.

[Matt Kestenbaum]

THis is nothing to mess around with serious allergic reactions can send you into shock. FWW did an article on the topic in 2009. The oily tropical woods were listed as the worst, specifically mentioning Rosewood, Teak, Goncalvo alves, and australian lacewood.

Here is a bit of the text:
Somepeople have an immediate reaction to a certain wood, but thechances of a reaction increase as exposure increases.
What is more frightening is that after you have an initialreaction you enter a permanent state of sensitization orhypersensitivity. From that point on, your body will alwaysrespond to this particular wood, and you may become allergicto other woods that did not bother you before.
Symptoms to look for—Wood allergies affect the skin or
the respiratory system. Sensitization dermatitis, a skin allergy, issimilar to a poison ivy outbreak. The reaction ranges from simplereddening and itching of the skin to swelling, blisters, and pos-sibly permanent skin thickening and cracking.


These outside sources were listed for further reading:

www.mnwoodturners.com/New_Member_Docs/Toxic_Woods_Chart.html
www.mimf.com/archives/toxic.htm
http://old.mendelu.cz/~horacek/toxic.htm

[Jim Matthews]

Consider the minor reaction a "shot across the bow".

These species developed a natural insecticide to survive in hostile environments.
I, for one, don't work with anything that requires a respirator, body armor or allergist on-call.

[Gary Chester]

So is this where the expression 'rosy cheeks' comes from?:cool:

Now that's funny right there... now back to serious conversation...

[Rick Fisher]

Wenge dust gives my arms a rash .. and other places.. Always wash your hands BEFORE going to the bathroom when working with tropical hardwoods..

[michael case]

Jim and Matt are right,


You would be well advised to drop working in Rosewood

[Thomas Canfield]

I had a reaction making a pen a couple of years ago from some wood that looked to be in the Rosewood family. I thought then I gave away all my wood of that type. Recently I had cut to length and only drilled a couple of blanks for a pen and started developing a rash and itch from some other oily wood. I think that once you get the reaction, it is easier to get it each time after that. Silky Oak is another wood that can produce a poison ivy type reaction.

[Dave Anthony]

I'd agree with the assessment of increased sensitivity with exposure. I had a moderate reaction to Santos rosewood, and a subsequent more serous reaction to Bolivian rosewood. Now I avoid rosewood of any kind. Beautiful wood, but not worth risking becoming allergic to my hobby. In addition to reducing the risk of shock, it eliminates the sticker shock when purchasing it :).

[Ray Chalenski]

Thanks for the input guys.It's a shame but I'll have to stop using the rosewood.It has such a pretty grain and color but it's not worth the reaction. Hard to turn and scratch at the same time.
Thanks again

[Montgomery Scott]

You are aware that Bolivian rosewood is not a true rosewood, right? It is in the Machaerium genus whereas rosewoods are the dalbergia genus.

[Montgomery Scott]

When you say rosewood, what wood do you mean?

[Ray Chalenski]

Not sure which variety they are. I received it from a friend of mine who works in a high end lumber yard in Ct.

[denis tuomey]

A few years back I bought 52bf. of some beautiful Honduran Rosewood :)to make an entertainment center. Helped load it in the truck. Was cool weather so I was wearing a thick long sleeve sweat shirt. About 30min. into the hr. ride home my arms started getting really itchhy:confused:. When I got home, (after un loading n stacking the wood) I had a red rash all over my arms:(. Next AM I had a rash all over, I looked it up on line and found out how toxic it is to some people:eek:. I was able to take it back (loaded it up wearing a rain suit n rubber gloves) :mad:and exchange it for 35bf. of Honduran Mahogony. Wish I could of used the rosewood, it sure was a beautiful wood but not worth the consequences.

[John Bare]

I'm thinking that cocobolo is in the rosewood family and I am allergic to it and have similar reactions as mentioned above.

[Damon Stathatos]

I live in the stuff (cocobolo), day-in and day-out. 'Thank the creator' I don't react to it. Probably about 5% of the guys who walk into my shop have related to me that they have had a reaction from it at one time or another. Another 25% or so are concerned about it because of what they have previously heard about it. I had one guy work for me that, as time went on, couldn't work around it any longer as the reaction got progressively worse.

I have around 12k board feet of cocobolo and mill it almost every day. Cocobolo stretches a full spectrum of colors, from almost ebony-like dark to lightish-tans, with reds, purples, oranges and all shades of browns in between. Every once in a great while, usually when cutting the real dark stuff (ebony-like dark and oily stuff), I get a burning sensation right up in my sinuses. As soon as I get away from it or put my dust mask (back on), it usually goes away, but that's just me and again I thank my 'lucky stars' it's nothing worse, otherwise I'd be out of business.

[Bob Feeser]

I wanted to say as a general rule working with any kind of wood I do the following;
1) Put a fan in the window and create a negative air flow dispelling all ariborne dust outside.
2) When I am using the table saw, and any time I am generating dust I have a 3M mask draped in front of me, and when the dust flies it is on my face. As soon as the air clears in the shop which only takes a couple of minutes the mask comes off and drapes in front of me at the ready.
3) Sometimes I run the two dust collectors on the ceiling in order to rid the air of heavy dust particles while I am working. Whenever they are running my dust mask is on my face. Those things put out ultra-fine particles in the air anytime they are running. A false sense of security they put out. It is the ultra fine stuff that does all of the damage and doesn't come out through spitum/phlegm. I don't get any spitum at all because of due diligence in not inhaling wood dust which the government has labeled as a known carcinogen.
4) I run the JDS Dust Force vac to collect as much of the dust as possible, and the bags are right next to the window that is sucking the air outside because those bags, just like the ceiling mount dust collectors emit a ton of fine stuff.

So in the middle of the rough tough crowd here is this guy wearing a mask. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So skin reactions to certain exotic woods be warned, but getting a reaction deep in your lungs is another whole story.
These above methods do not get in the way of my enjoyment of wood working at all. The tunes are playing, the fan in the window of my basement shop is purring, kind of like keeping me company, and with the lower clasp of the 3M mask keeping it like a bib in front of me always at the ready is no nuisance at all. I had a high end body shop for 20 years and got used to wearing one. My lungs are clear. By the way this is a real mask with a charcoal and pre filtration system. It form fits to your face. No beards. Its about 25 or 30 dollars at Home Depot to get one. Worth it's weight in gold.
The one in the picture is $24.97.

[Dave Zellers]

No beards...

But, you seem to have a beard. At least I hope that's a beard. :cool:

I have a beard too. What do you do? Just strap it on tight?


That thing would make you look like a Storm Trooper from Star Wars.

[Harvey Pascoe]

Not all Dalbergia contains the compound responsible for allergic reactions in the same degree. I developed a horrid reaction to cocobolo, which is the worst of them all. I still use coco, but now I wear a tyvek suit and respirator and that works out well. None of the others affect me very much tho I make an effort to keep the dust off my skin. Eye problems are another effect.

[Jack Briggs]

I get dermatitis from working with cocobolo (dalbergia retusa). It is a strong sensitizer, defined by OSHA (http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/osha.html) as "a chemical (http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/chemical.html) that causes a substantial proportion of exposed people or animals to develop an allergic reaction in normal tissue after repeated exposure to the chemical."

Anytime I work with cocobolo I wear long sleeves and always....always......always wear a dust mask and run the air filter.



Cheers,

[Mike Cruz]

Ray, I would just avoid spreading the Rosewood on my cheeks, neck and the back of my hands....but that's just me. :D Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if you reacted to it. There are plenty of woods out there that give people allergic reactions...especially the exotics. Walnut is another big one. Personally, no, I am neither allergic to Rosewood or any other wood that I've worked with. But that you got a reaction is actually not a surprise. Sorry... Hope it doesn't keep you from using it. Maybe you could just make sure you cover yourself as best as you can, collect the dust as much as possible, and be vigillant about cleaning up yourself AND your shop when you are done working the Rosewood. Best of luck to you...

[Trent Shirley]

As Mike was saying lots of types of wood cause reactions in some people. Apple wood is well known for causing reactions. I recently cut some up and ended up with sinus problems for two weeks. Of course it could have been coincidence and the apple wood not what set me off but given how well known it is for causing reactions I will treat it carefully.
Just about any kind of wood dust aggravates my sinuses though I have not tested allergic to anything but molds.
It could be the fungus in the tree that caused my reaction rather than the wood itself but if the two come together it makes little difference.

[Mike Cruz]

MDF dust set me off BIG time a few months back. I knew better, but was a bone head. That won't happen again...