Bill, thanks for the very informative post. A few questions if you would be so kind....
After all you have been through, I am curious, if you had this knowledge many years ago before you started wood working.....would you avoid it as a hobby as a result of knowing all the potential health risks associated with dust?
Will, I was raised by a father who as a woodworker insisted on making most of our own furniture and building our own homes, plus I dearly enjoyed my woodworking taking every class and opportunity I could get to improve my skills. As my career advanced and I left the family construction business I went from being able to see the fruits of my labor to management and overseeing big projects that were so huge I almost never got that satisfaction of being able to say “I built that”. I filled that void becoming a hobbyist woodworker making “special” gifts for family and friends. So I would still have pursued woodworking without a second thought.
You mentioned the use of respirator while working with wood in your ww history. Wasn't this sufficient protection to avoid dust related health problems? Or did you use it too infrequently? It seems even back then, you took many precautionary measures, probably even more than most ww's do today. Can you elaborate on this?
What I did wrong was wore my respirator only when making fine dust. I had no clue that the most dangerous dust, the 10-micron and smaller particles which are invisible without magnification had built up so high in my clean looking shop from venting my cyclone inside that I was getting dangerously high exposures even when not making fine dust. My medical air quality test run after three months of no woodworking showed just turning on my cyclone without doing any woodworking launched enough fine dust mostly from the cyclone filter to fail the air quality test. I needed to wear my respirator mask any time I worked in my shop, or come up with a far better dust collection system.
You mentioned an analogy of cigarette smoking and fine dust inhalation - some people react to each, but not everyone. It's clearly obvious that cigarette smoke is a lethal habit, at best, some people have a better immune system than others, to hold off the ill effects. Also, cigarette smokers vary greatly in their total intake, as some only smoke a few cigs a day, while others smoke 3 packs a day. This makes me very curious about something which I hope you can offer us your opinion.....
Since your crusade began awhile back to help other ww's, you have become sort of a clearing house for information regarding wood dust - both the proper collection of dust, and how it has effected ww'ers health. I am sure many people who are suffering from wood dust health problems have communicated with you over the years....some looking for help, some just to share stories, maybe you have researched these workers health patterns, longevity etc. So you are probably have as much knowledge as anyone in this area, partly due to the ease of communications via the internet, which you have utilized very well.
My question is, in general, would you say that fine wood dust has proven to be lethal in those with max. exposure vs. the weekend warrior? There is many who work in the ww field who are exposed to dust 12 hrs a day, vs. many weekend warriors that may be exposed to dust 12 hours a month. From your experience (and I realize this may be your gut reaction, not solid science), do you feel most of the dust related health problems are associated with those with life long continuous exposure? Or do you find that many weekend warriors also have a surprisingly high incidence of dust related health problems?
Whew, thanks for the kind words of support. My respiratory doctor has specialized in allergic reactions for more than thirty years. He answered this same question for me when he was pushing me to put up my web pages. He said rarely is wood dust lethal, but he believes it is responsible for a far higher percentage of allergic reactions and illnesses in older people than most realize. He explained that just about any amount of woodworking is going to make far more fine dust than it takes to create a problem. Although we see immediate toxicity problems and allergic reactions, the permanent damage to our lungs ends up appearing later in life. It is very hard to tie to woodworking to many elderly problems because the damage is done years if not decades before. We know from medical studies that every fine dust exposure creates some small permanent damage and this damage accumulates with time and amount of exposure.
He said the biggest problems seem to happen to small shop and hobbyist woodworkers because we have much higher exposures than woodworkers who work in larger facilities. He explained most in commercial shops are subject to fire marshal inspection that requires placing most large commercial dust collectors and cyclones outside where the fine dust is blown away. This is not so for the 6 out of 7 professional and hobbyist woodworkers who work in small shops. We tend to vent our dust collection inside. We also have problems because most of our tools come with hoods that spray fine dust all over; most small shop dust collection systems move about half the air needed for good fine dust collection; and most small shop filters in spite of advertising claims pass a good portion of the fine 10-micron and smaller invisible particles known to cause the most long term damage. These fine particles get right by our bodies’ natural protections then lodge in our tissues were we have a difficult time getting rid of them. Our indoor filters should be rated when clean and new as required by ASHRAE. Instead our vendors rate the filters based on having a cake of dust built up in the filter matrix that does not come out with normal machine shaking or pulse jet cleaning. Also, most small shop wood workers so obsessively clean our filters that they rarely “season” enough to provide the vendor advertised levels of protection. While our filters "season" and after every over cleaning we are left with our lungs doing the filtering. Worse, because this fine dust is so easily transported in any shared air and on our clothes, skin and hair we end up contaminating all areas we visit. Our normal heating and air conditioning filters in our homes just keep cycling this dust as it builds leaving us and all close to us with high exposures.
Also, you mention the problem with certain toxic woods. Do you feel people working with these woods represent a high % of those with serious dust related health problems today, or would you lean more towards those who have had max. exposure to even the low toxic wood species?
Most of those who have shared with me that they have developed problems are those who either have long worked in dusty shops or had high exposures to one of the more toxic woods. Unfortunately, we all react differently to the many woods that can cause us to quickly build up a sensitivity. Take a look at the Toxicity Table (click here) I updated and share on my pages
Again, I realize some of your response may be your gut feeling, accumulated from your research and working /communicating with so many ww'ers. But like all fields in their infancy, sometimes, these gut feelings are the seeds to future fruit. It's all we have to get a better understanding of the problem. Of course, we all know that each of us reacts differently, so my questions are of a generic nature.
After reading about the serious health problems the grain workers suffer, it set off some alarm bells in my head. Considering their dust inhalation is from the same foods they eat, it clearly demonstrated that the source of the dust does not need to be toxic itself to cause serious health problems. Which leads me to believe, as you have mention, it's more a function of dust particle size, rather than the dust source...... within reason here, I am sure nuclear waste dust will have a more lethal effect than what we are discussing here.
From what I have read we have three basic problems with wood dust. First are the chemicals found in wood which can be poisonous, irritants, sensitizers or increase our risk of cancer plus cause a few known diseases. Second are the chemicals often associated with woodworking. Wood often contains chemicals from glues, solvents, finishes, resins, insecticides, herbicides, preservatives, etc. Likewise when molds, yeasts, fungi, mildews, lichen, etc. break down wood they also add additional chemicals to our wood dust. The larger the particles the more of these chemicals in the wood dust we take in, so the greater the risk. The third area has to do with the long term damage done to our respiratory systems by the fine dust. We know that all kinds of fine dust are pretty unhealthy with 5 to10-micron sized particles lodging in our respiratory passages where our bodies have a hard time getting rid of them. The 1 to 5-micron sized particles lodge in our lungs with the particle material (PM) sized 2.5-micons and smaller well known to cause long term lung fibrosis and related problems. I think what makes this most dangerous is understanding that hand sawing less than 7” of ¾” stock creates enough fine dust to cause a typical 2-car garage sized shop to fail and OSHA air quality test, cause five of these same sized shops to fail an ASHRAE air quality test, and cause fifty of these same sized shops to fail a medical air quality test of only 0.1 milligrams per cubic meter of air (mg/cm3) which is the latest EPA standard and for outside air would trigger a serious smog alert.
Sorry for all the questions..... and thank you again Bill for being so generous with your time and expertise to help many of us better understand what you have learned through your tireless work through the years.... I know for me, I find your opinions insightful and might help me get a better grasp on ww as a hobby for me. I am not being overly paranoid, but I like to make informed decisions with as much information as possible.
And btw, thanks to you, I have already implemented many drastic measures to limit my dust exposure, such as using a cyclone vented outside, dust masks, better tool collection, opening the doors whenever possible, installing a continuous exhaust system with make up air coming from the other side of the building, using less toxic woods as often as possible, doing much less hand sanding, using downdraft tables when i hand sand, etc. Of course, all this seems so obvious now, but before I digested all your information awhile back, well..... my approach to ww was just, get the job done, health risks was not on my mind, so your hard work and your generosity to share your findings with us, has altered my approach and mindset to ww in a very favorable manner. So, thanks again Bill.
You are most welcome