I am getting suspicious about this recurring rash. There is epoxy dust all over my garage.
take care with lungs!
Make sure you have more fresh air and less confined air! Make doubly sure your respirator is functioning perfectly! Lung tissue is much more susceptible than skin and you must be careful to not do permanent damage to your lungs. The fact your arms are reacting may be direct contact only but if due to particles in air, that is not a good sign.
GET DUST AT THE SOURCE
the very first thing I did after boat 4 was get a 25’ vacuum house and connect the shop vac to the ROS and put the shop vac outside the garage,it’s worth doing it even if you sand outside to use the ROS on the shop vac.
Sure there’s some kind of sanding that can only be done by hand but the problem is that fine dust can collect in skin pores when it’s hot and humid. The other problem is exposed mucus membranes like eyes.
Get the dust at the source. Whipping it up and blowing it around later isn’t a good idea.
That’s a good idea Lee.
I did some looking at lunch and there was an article about a component of some epoxies,bisphenol-A, that is suspected to be causing major increases in prostate cancer.
That itch!
My lower legs would itch for days after a few hours in my QCC for the first several months as it out-gassed. Worse with more exposure (skirt on and/or longer time in the boat). Faded over time.
If I’m that sensitive to finished product, maybe I should stay away from building anything that requires resin. One more reason to do a SOF!
Rashes
I developed a small but persistant rash between my fingers and I always wear latex gloves when working with epoxy. No rash anywhere else, though. I sand out side with a 2 filter respirator mask. There is no way I would let loose all the epoxy dust in doors.
I would not want to build kayaks for a living because of all the toxins. But one or two a year wouldn’t be a problem if one took the proper safety measures.
Ditto on the lungs!!!
The rash on the skin is going to be a walk in the park compared to emphysemic lung problems from the dust…IMHO Get one large capacity exhaust fan and get the dust out before going any further.
vacuum on ROS
the discs last longer. Honestly it was like discovering the wheel when I got the hose and put it between the ROS and the vac. The first s&g I did was a typical beginners nightmare buying huge quantities of sheet sandpaper and using a 1/4sheet sander. Of course there was a lot of glass and epoxy to smooth out given the backyard building experience of applying too much epoxy,ditto the sand/coat/sand/recoat/ ad infinitum. The backyard was covered in white dust.
But one of the employees at the local TAP plastics mentioned a few horror stories of epoxy sensitization so I always wore gloves when working with wet epoxy,and a respirator when sanding,while the dust was all around my eyes.
epoxy dust
poxy dust will also burn out the brushes on an ROS. I have gone through 3 in as many years.
My first boat I generated alot of dust, fairing, glassing. I made no attempt to control it, just let fly.
Our brand new furnace quit working one winter night. I quickly blew the garage out and called my repair man. He found a vacumn control had clogged and couldn’t understand why. He did like my new strip canoe though!
That sounds like the tree my neighbor
and I dropped on his house power line. The tree was gone by the time the power company got there. Lots of sawdust around though.We had no idea why the line pulled out of the house.
He laughed and put it back.