Originally Posted by
michael osadchuk
Peter,
I'm not a doctor..... but it sounds from the above that your immune system has been comprised.....
the bad news is, of course, if this is the case, that it could get worse if you don't track down what is attacking it and deal with the 'triggers'; you may have to give up or significantly modify activities you enjoy like woodworking....
the good news is that you can recover some or most of the losses to your immune system, etc.
ironically, another small piece of the good news is that given that your body appears to be 'sensitized' to the triggers that are affecting your breathing, to an extent your body can act as a dust particle counter/monitor ........ you already seem to know some of the triggers in the workshop (eg. breathing immediately affected when turning on DC with the oversized/leaking plastic bags).......
... this is the opposite of many self reports where people say "I don't see any dust in the air and my body isn't being discomforted at the moment and conclude the air quality in their workshop must be fine" just like people attending a lot of rock concerts/use headphones at too loud a setting and say their hearing is fine (hearing loss has not yet become subjectively apparent)......
..... if you make one change at a time in your workshop dust collection/air filtration and workshop activities, the signals your body is giving off may be sufficient to guide you in improveing the air quality in your workshop
I've had a Dylos particle counter (the cheapest, base model calibrated for 1/5 microns) now for 5 years and have used it to track down problems with dust collection or when I do something new in the shop that might generate excessive dust particles.... otherwise I no longer use it continuously when I'm in the shop because I've come to know, with the dust collection setup I now have and with routine shop work activity, I won't have an air quality problem
good luck
michael