Woodworking Dust and COPD

[user 19915]

Reply to a earlier post regarding dust not being the cause of copd I have been working in the mines all my life and i have COPD and i have never smoked yes it.s a different dust but it;s not the dust you can see it;s the very fine dust that you can not see that causes all the damage well most of it
Alan

 

[MatthewRedStars]

Yes, I'm staggeringly careful around mdf too. In fact any man made board where I know there's resin in its manufacture which includes pretty much all of them, ply, OSB, Chipboard, blockboard etc.

But I confess, I'm not as diligent when machining natural woods, although again, I do take extra care if it comes from somewhere exotic! (Like Yandles I hear you chorus )

This statement is repeated a lot - but it's not true these days. All fine dust is dangerous and MDF etc is no more dangerous than 'natural' wood. It's all bad.

A quick google of the HSE will show the relevant info. I think the constant misinformation about MDF being toxic and timber being fine is pretty dangerous thing to keep spreading.

 

[sploo]

A quick google of the HSE will show the relevant info. I think the constant misinformation about MDF being toxic and timber being fine is pretty dangerous thing to keep spreading.

Indeed. Modern MDF is low in formaldehyde, and plenty of exotic "real" timbers are really nasty (e.g. Iroko). Possibly it's the really dusty nature of MDF that makes people wary, but you really don't want to breath any of them in.

 

[wallace]

Bob my symptoms started as sinus pain and lots of infections, that was over 12 years ago. It progressed to head pain which is similar to a migraine, which can last 2 days. If I take antihistimines daily and follow a quite strict regime I'm fine.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

I think that all fine dust particles are hazardous and can cause or exacerbate respiratory problems. But a goal of zero particulates in the workshop would for most hobbyists require expenditure on extraction rather greater than the aggregate cost of machinery in the workshop. So that simply leaves a number of questions unanswered:

- what level of exposure constitutes an acceptable risk. All endeavour involves risk - driving, crossing the road, etc - and we mostly intuitively accept rather than explicitly assess the risks. Working 35 hours a week in a factory environment with possibly several machines running is an entirely different proposition to the weekend wood warrior in the workshop for 5 - 8 hours a week with at most one machine operating.

- if we acknowledge that zero dust is not realistically attainable, what level of dust reduction is acceptable or "right" for a home workshop. In mine I have ducting/blastgates connected to all the machinery (mostly small size) using a dustbin type extractor plus a workshop filter. When sanding on the lathe or belt sander I can see most dust going through to the filter. Dust created by the bandsaw reduces by 80-90% with extraction.

- I have no way of knowing what concentration of airborne dust is left. A meter seems to cost £000s - again uneconomic in a small workshop.

So at the end of the day I don't really have any easy answers. The safe option is probably an externally fed full face mask but I (and I suspect most of us) don't want my hobby compromised in that way. We don't have any real data on the risks associated with different levels of exposure - either absolute amounts or from different materials. We don't even have a remotely cost effective way of measuring particulates without substantial expense.

Perhaps the last issue is most important - were the cost of a meter £50 - 100 I may buy one. I would be happy to rent one for a week for £50 to get a better feel for how effective my extraction is and spend additional money to upgrade it where necessary. Anyone know where we can get cheap reasonably accurate meter??

 

[wallace]

- what level of exposure constitutes an acceptable risk. All endeavour involves risk - driving, crossing the road, etc - and we mostly intuitively accept rather than explicitly assess the risks. Working 35 hours a week in a factory environment with possibly several machines running is an entirely different proposition to the weekend wood warrior in the workshop for 5 - 8 hours a week with at most one machine operating.

I think the difference between home and work is that at work you should be working within limits that are prescribed from the HSE. When at home in your man cave of joy you have no way to tell if your exposure is excessive. I suppose the exposure your getting in your shed could be concentrated.
Like mentioned earlier a simple and very affective test would be wipe a shelf and see what collects within two days. You will soon know if you have a problem.

 

[PAC1]

Perhaps the last issue is most important - were the cost of a meter £50 - 100 I may buy one. I would be happy to rent one for a week for £50 to get a better feel for how effective my extraction is and spend additional money to upgrade it where necessary. Anyone know where we can get cheap reasonably accurate meter??

Terry, try a torch. Turn the lights out just before dusk and then shine a torch across the workshop. It will give you a good idea of the scale of the problem.

 

[lurker]

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/wis23.pdf