Tulane Wood Dust Study...No Health Risks..

[robert baccus]

After turning for 20 years i conclude this is a crock. all woods will put you down if enough fine stuff is ingested. the matter of "durable" woods is another issue entirely. these tropical and domestic hardwoods that resist decay have extractives as serious as creosote ect. in them. many such as cocobolo, produce rashes as severe as poison ivy. i read recently where 1 guywas killed and others hospitilized from breathing "silky oak" dust. i can't stay in the roon with chestnut or cedar dust. these woods should be treated entirely different fron the others. ----------ol forester

[Greg Peterson]

After turning for 20 years i conclude this is a crock.

The key is:
"According to the AF&PA, the study concludes that breathing wood dust does not pose an adverse health risk to respiratory functions, as no significant adverse effects from wood dust were reported at participating facilities."

Wanna bet dollars to donuts these facilities already had industrial grade dust collection?

My take on the report is that current dust collection in industry is adequate. The home hobbyist or semi-pro should not cite this report as evidence that DC is unnecessary.

For the doubters, keep on doubting. I'm not taking my chances, and besides that, a good DC system cuts down on shop cleanup time.

[Russ Filtz]

ANY study sponsored by a trade group is automatically suspect.

[Mark Engel]

The key is:
"According to the AF&PA, the study concludes that breathing wood dust does not pose an adverse health risk to respiratory functions, as no significant adverse effects from wood dust were reported at participating facilities."

Wanna bet dollars to donuts these facilities already had industrial grade dust collection?

My take on the report is that current dust collection in industry is adequate. The home hobbyist or semi-pro should not cite this report as evidence that DC is unnecessary.

For the doubters, keep on doubting. I'm not taking my chances, and besides that, a good DC system cuts down on shop cleanup time.

That quote makes me scratch my head in disbelief. They state that wood dust does not present a problem because they did not find anyone showing any symptoms. That is absolutely ludicrous.

Also look at what else it says (or doesn't say). It doesn't say that Tulane University, or the folks that ran the test are saying wood dust is not harmful. It says that the AF&PA interpretation of the test is that wood dust is not harmful.

Someone told me a long time ago, "Figures don't lie, but liars sure can figure".

Someone also told me, "You can buy an air filter, or you can be an air filter.".

[Lee DeRaud]

This horse might have eventually died from inhaling wood dust, but we beat it to death first.

[Paul Kinneberg]

Before, a day in the shop without any dust collection use to mean blowing saw dust out of my nose for a day or so. Now with a Onieda dust gorilla, Festool vacum, and 2 JDS air cleaners nothing! You be the judge, I know in my mind that it makes a huge difference and is as important to me as my saftey glasses.

[Steve Sawyer]

Just to add my $0.02 in personal observation...

I installed the common DC setup, running a flex hose from a portable Delta 1 HP 650 CFM collector to each machine as it was used.

I noticed the amount of dust that was NOT being collected, either from stuff thrown off a blade above the table rather than below where it was collected, as well as from hand operations like planing and drilling.

Next I noticed that I could return to the shop 24 hours after doing any kind of wood cutting, doing only assembly work requiring no machinery with spinning blades or bits, and I'd have a dry cough after an hour in the shop.

I added a nice Jet ambient air filter to the space, and I eliminated that problem too.

[Mark Engel]

For anyone interested in reading the final report as written by the people who actually did the study, here it is:

www.trefokus.no/Doc2132_Annex_JEkEm.pdf.file

By the way, notice the date, October, 2005.

[Greg Funk]

For anyone interested in reading the final report as written by the people who actually did the study, here it is:

www.trefokus.no/Doc2132_Annex_JEkEm.pdf.file

By the way, notice the date, October, 2005.

That's an exec summary of the report not the actual report. I don't believe this study was accepted for publication in any peer reviewed journals so it is of questionable value.

Greg

[Wilbur Pan]

I've said this before about the Tulane wood dust study, but it bears repeating.

=======

One major issue with the Tulane wood dust study: I can't find the actual study anywhere. There's an article in the Tulane University Magazine referencing the study and the lead author, Henry Glindmeyer, but doing a search on Pubmed (a database of all articles relating to biomedical research) for "Glindmeyer" doesn't return an article describing these findings, which leads me to believe that the Tulane wood dust study is, at the very least, not peer-reviewed. There's an "executive summary" of the paper that I found, and that Greg mentioned, and mention of a presentation of this data in 2002 at the American Industrial Hygiene Conference & Exposition, and lots of press releases, but no published paper that I can find, at least.

To see a list of these papers, go to www.pubmed.gov, and search for "Glindmeyer".

Interestingly, reading the abstracts of the other studies that he is an author on shows that he does link respiratory disease with exposure to spray painting, cotton dust, coffee bean processing, and sandblasting, and in many of these cases says that current standards and practices are inadequate to protect workers in these industries.

I don't think it's a complete coincidence that in an industry funded study, Glindmeyer comes to an opposite conclusion to his other work.

In addition, we need to be aware that if a study is funded with industry money, the sponsors of the study can and do squash studies that are not favorable to the sponsor. The recent issues with antidepressants and an increased risk of teen suicide is one of the most recently publicized examples of this, but this goes on all the time.

I'm a pediatric oncologist that works in academics, and our division is frequently approached by industry to do clinical research sponsored by private funds, so we see a lot of this. Industry always reserves the right to do what they want with the dat, including refusing to submit it for publication. I don't know of a single physician worth their weight in salt that doesn't automatically see industry sponsorship and think, "potentially compromised data".

This is not to deny that private funding sources aren't important. But if funding comes from the public sector, I have more faith in the data.

Sometimes I think that this information should belong in a FAQ.

[howard hirst]

Hi
I'm a violin bowmaker working with ebony and pernambuco---caesalpina echinata----and recently I had some eyelid inflamation --diagnosed as blocked glands----I had a minor operation to put things right but it seems to be recurring

Any Ideas??????

[Mike Heidrick]

Hi
I'm a violin bowmaker working with ebony and pernambuco---caesalpina echinata----and recently I had some eyelid inflamation --diagnosed as blocked glands----I had a minor operation to put things right but it seems to be recurring

Any Ideas??????

Buddy has this and he does no WW at all. Check with a specialist.