Beware of common wood dust

[David Ragan]

Being concise is a virtue-pls forgive the length-

Three weeks ago, my best friend Barry, who taught me woodworking-was placed on a ventilator @ the VA.

The story:

After his Dad passed, Barry was cleaning out his Dad's house; his wife said that he was getting into a lot of boxes and such-that had not been moved in probably decades.

Lots of dust and debris was kicked up.

He coughed a little.

Two days later he was in the VA ER; that night was in respirator failure, in ICU, on a ventilator.

Over a period of two weeks every consultant imaginable came in.

The CDC is in fact across the street.

My wife and I went down there last Saturday and were shocked and horrified by a loving, generous, and kind 6'5" 350 lb man lying helpless and unresponsive for no apparent reason besides some dust exposure.

It was a very long ride home.

The next day, last Sunday, I was sitting where I am now.....and it occurred to me....Barry had a habit of spraying everything (dust, shavings, etc)out of the way, and into the air in the shop, instead of vacuuming it.

(You know, we all have air compressor hoses.....my preference is to vacuum it-HEPA style.)

Sitting here, the light bulb went off-I texted his wife to be sure and tell his MD about Barry's chronic exposure to organic material-wood dust.

She did.

Two days later, he started to improve; yesterday he was off the vent; today, he was sent out to the regular medical floor.

I did not make inquiries about therapeutic changes. Don't need to.

Barry had hypersensitivity pneumonitis that almost took him out. He currently has cognitive and memory issues-"to be expected".

Today, I also started wearing a double canister breathing mask (in addition to always running my Jet air cleaner) while running any power tools.

So, all this swirled around in my little over-educated Family Doctor head, and I was reluctant to put the effort into posting it.

Been posted many times before, right?

But, sitting here watching a talented woodworking YouTuber blow wood dust out of the way compressed air over and over in front of his audience.....I am compelled to post this.

Thanks for your attention to this important Public Service Announcement.

[Larry Frank]

It is a good reminder.

Many people will just say it never bothers me so why worry. It can be cumulative over time and as we get older more of a hazard. And you never really know when some would will set off a reaction.

Lastly, when you have a problem, tell your doctors as much as possible about what you are exposed to.

[Frederick Skelly]

Good reminder, especially from a woodworking family doctor.
Thanks David.
Fred

[Steve Eure]

I am a firm believer in wearing a dust mask and using dc and vacuum every time I have a machine running and never blow with an air compressor. I had gotten a lung infection and then pneumonia form walnut dust a few years ago and still have problems with it. It amazes me how lax some people are when it comes to this issue. At the time it may not affect them, but over time it can be deadly.
Thanks for the heads up and I hope your friend has a speedy recovery.

[Rod Sheridan]

Excellent advice David, thanks for the reminder.

I hope Barry fully recovers...............Regards, Rod.

[Jim Dwight]

Controversial topic. I like the information on the "woodworking for engineers" website. He has dust level comparison between shops, indoor area, and outside. Indoor air and outside sometimes have more dust than the shops he measured. At least if he used dust collection. Without he got some really high readings. But with dust collection the levels of dust were comparable to inside air. The information includes comments from a doctor. Basically he says that our bodies are built to deal with things like wood dust. But everything has limits.

But just getting the dust level down does not address allergies. If you are allergic to anything you have to take precautions.

I like Bill Pence's website. He has done a lot of work that is valuable to all of us. But he has extreme sensitivities to not just wood dust but dust in general. So what he needs to do to protect his health is not the same as what I need to do.

I use a shop vac on as much equipment as possible and like to do work with doors open on both sides of the shop for cross ventilation. I sweep and use a bench brush but do not use compressed air to blow wood dust. I might get out the outside blower to blow out the shop at some point but I'll probably wear a mask if I do that.

I think what you have to do is a function of your sensitivity but for me, common sense reduction at the source as much as possible is the main thing. But routers make a mess, some tools are difficult to address. So an ambient filter and/or cross ventilation or just get out of the shop for awhile. The measurements indicate the dust will settle out in a few minutes.

[Julie Moriarty]

I am at the point I cannot do anything that creates wood dust without wearing a respirator. A recent episode with sipo drilled that lesson into my head forever.

[John K Jordan]

A friend of ours worked in his shop for years without any breathing protection. He did some very creative woodturning and specialized in incredible rose engine work. He gradually became sensitized to the point that he had to quit working with wood completely. He sold his entire shop and wood inventory, had the stand-alone shop building professionally cleaned and sanitized twice, but still couldn't go into the building. He ended up selling the house and moving. I bought one of his lathes as a spare.

With lifelong allergies and asthma I've tried a bunch of dust masks in the shop. The 3M respirators with P100 filters are my favorite:

respirator.jpg

[Ted Reischl]

Never quite understood blowing dust around with an air hose. It just settles somewhere else and then that needs to be blown off. If I did that, pretty soon my shop would be knee deep in saw dust (I have a small shop, 14 X 28).

BUT ( you just knew there would be one). . . About twice a year I get the leaf blower in there and blow the heck out of the place with the doors wide open and a big honking fan moving the air. I wear a respirator while doing that. Amazing what comes out from hiding. Dead spiders, water bugs, wasps, etc.

[Chris Parks]

I might add this to the above comments for your information.

Most shop vacuums leak dust

Most shop vacuums chop up the dust into smaller particles and then leak and eject that dust in the exhaust back into the workshop.

There are shop vacuums and better shop vacuums.

[Art Mann]

An air hose is for wimps. I use my gas powered leaf blower to get rid of dust the collector doesn't get and it is extremely effective and fast. I just open both garage doors and stand at the back and work my way forward. I would never do this without a good, well fitting respirator though.