Cough, Philippine Mahogany, Hack, Cough????

[Brian Kent]

I just took all of the last bits of Philippine Mahogany out of my shop. It started hurting my lungs and making me cough - just from planing with a block plane!

I don't remember this reaction from the past, when I made some bookshelves and a cajon drum out of this wood. But this was ridiculous. I was showing a plane to a friend by taking a few strokes on end grain and both of us started hacking.

This was with the Jet Air Filter on high.

Has any one else experienced this?

I may have developed a sensitivity from breathing the dust in the past, or it might be the particular pieces of wood, which were once a crate for other hardwoods from the Philippines.

Brian

[Jim Heffner]

I had some coughing and irritation while refinishing a table that I thought was Phillipine mahagony also...I took a piece of it to klingspor woodworking shop for some finishing advice....they said it wasn't mahagony....probably was rubberwood instead. If you salvage some old pallets or packing crates from across the pond, that wood may have been
fumigated with some type of insecticide to kill any small creekstures (pests) that are native to the area and should not be allowed to enter
the U.S. because of any new infestations of foreign bugs. The irritation
probably came from that as well as the wood itself. Jim Heffner

[Jim Becker]

Everyone is an individual and that goes for sensitivities, too. Mine is Bubinga. It knocks me for a loop...

[Mike Cutler]

I can't work with Mahogany without wearing a respirator.:( .
It makes the front of my face numb around the nose and mouth. Too bad, because I really like mahogony.

[Chris Barton]

Mahogany is not commonly associated with reactions but, like Jim said, individual results may vary. The fact that both you and your friend reacted makes me wonder if there is a possibility that it is another wood labeled as mahogany (there is a class of woods known as fumerates that humans tend to be very sensitive to) or if it has been treated with a chemical that you may be sensitive to. Classic allergic sensitivity requires an exposure in which there is no reaction (but you immune system is mobilized) and you display sensitivity to that item on all subsequent exposures.

[Charles Bruno]

I too collect wood from pallets, I have some really nice looking stuff.
If the pallet has a HT stamped on it it was heat treated to kill any insects. If it has MB stamped on it it was treated with methal bromide. The DB stamped next to eather one of these markings means it was treated after being debarked.