Originally Posted by
Alan Schaffter
Phil, your point is a good one, but it may be that not enough historical health data has been collected on these workers. There are better examples too, since it wasn't all that long ago that carpenters used handsaws. Now, while they may use circular saws which often generate more large dust particles than fine ones, they often use them outside where the dust quickly blows away and the concentration reduced. I would like to see numbers on wood floor finishers. Most of the big floor sanders I've seen and used generate tons of dust and the supplied collection bags look like a 25 micron dust pump supplied with early DC's.
One point often overlooked, too, when making comparisons especially between industry and home shops- in the early days and well into the industrial revolution, there were few power tools and no belt/drum sanding machines. In fact, much of the heavy producers of fine dust haven't been around for too long. Industry, unlike most home shops, typically has better dust collection in a space with an interior volume many times that of home shops. Many heavy dust producers haven't been in home shops until recent years either- most weren't invented or were unaffordable when my dad had a home shop, especially sanders- ROS, disk, belt, drum, and wide-belt sanders. Now, machines like drum and wide belt sanders which were limited to commercial shops, can be found in many home shops and may therefore generate more dust than their commercial relatives which are usually connected to monster DC systems, all in a much more confined space that can result in much higher concentrations of dust. Bottom line, I would be more concerned about the health of woodworkers in today's well-equipped home shop than those working in industrial environments.