alergic reaction

[fernandocontra]

Hi,

I was re shapping a bass fingerboard. I used a dust mask (I have to say that was a standard one, not good and probably not enough for the job). I did not have the sensation of breathing dust, may be after in the cleaning? NOt sure. The thing is that hours later I had a pulmonary irritation and I felt moderate pain for two days.

The doctor did not find the cause and now it is getting better. Seems to be just an irritation.

Asking the onwer of the bass, he told me the former reshaping was completed with cianocrilate and ebony dust to fill gaps.

I would like to ask about simmilar experiences with eboy dust. Is it possible with a small amount of dust to have such a reaction, that by the way, never happened before? May be the cianocrilate, but it is dry for more than 5 years......I´m not sure if after 5 years it is still dangerous.

Anyway, my next dust mask is a ffp2 protection one and a vacuum cleaner is comming to joing the team.

Thanks!!!

[FiddleDoug]

Lots of different kinds of wood can cause irritation or allergic responses. Here's a list:

Wood Allergies

Best to use good protection and dust control whenever possible.

[Doug Marples]

I can't speak to bass fingerboards specifically (no experience there) but I use wet sanding methods whenever practical for ebony sanding (planing ebony doesn't seem to bother me). I have wooden sanding blocks with radii just a little bigger than the desired fingerboard radius and work through the grits mostly in the transverse direction (after finishing whatever planing I'm going to do). I keep a plastic tub of water beside the work and wash out the sandpaper (wet or dry type) with a toothbrush. No airborn ebony dust that way. Besides eliminating dust in the air the sandpaper cuts faster and doesn't load up with the wet sanding technique. I also use wet sandpaper on nuts and saddles before a final polish with coarse cloth.

[Jeffrey Holmes]

I'm no MD (though my wife is a nurse) and I don't know of a cyanoacrylate dust study, but my experience working with material (ebony, etc.) that has previously been filled with the stuff seems to indicate the dust is, at the least, an irritant. That may be due to particle shape or other factors... I just know that the dust will start me off on a rather severe sneezing episode.

I did find the following on a wood turners site (turners often stabilize exotic woods with CA), so I seem not to be imagining this on my own:

"Caution: CA Glue (Cyanoacrylate) fumes and sanding dust are noxious and may irritate the skin,eyes, and nose. Take adequate protective measures – use good ventilation, a fan, or a dust control

system. Be careful, this glue bonds human skin to itself and glue flung into the eyes can be very

irritating."

[Michael_Molnar]

Maple dust gives me something like bronchitis. Ebony makes me sneeze my head off. The issue is dust from sanding.

[fernandocontra]

IT looks like a good plan to use the water tub for the sanding, at least with ebony.

Thanks to all for share

[COB3]

I think all the members of the Rosewood family (I'm not a botanist--maybe "family" is not the right word) tend to be allergenic.

My first major reaction to wood dust was when I made my first instrument. I used Brazilian Rosewood for the fingerboard, and made it from scratch, so there was a lot of shaping, and, as I used a drum-sander to hollow the underside (first try--didn't have proper gouges) I breathed a lot of rosewood dust. I enjoyed the smell...poor fool that I was. By that evening or the next day, I was having a MAJOR allergic reaction, sneezing incessantly; and it lasted for several days.

Ebony is not quite as bad...Cocobolo seems to be worse. Now I wear a respirator every time I work on wood...even spruce sets me off, now, if I forget the mask.

[gowan]

I looked at the wood toxicity data base linkeed above. Who knew that so many woods can provoke an allergic reaction? As far as I've heard, one of the most toxic wood dusts is pernambuco.

[Addie]

Of course toxins and allergens are not the same thing...

I once got seriously ill from turning a piece of ivy root.

[lyndon]

none of the traditional woods have ever bothered me much but when i was making electric guitars out of african bubinga, whoah, the dust would actually get you high like a barbituate if you didnt use a mask, so i know wood can have strange effects and everyones sensitivity can be different

[Doc Eastman]

none of the traditional woods have ever bothered me much but when i was making electric guitars out of african bubinga, whoah, the dust would actually get you high like a barbituate if you didnt use a mask, so i know wood can have strange effects and everyones sensitivity can be different

BA survey was carried out on wood workers and on a group of unexposed, healthy controls. One group of wood workers (group A) were asymptomatic and another (group had symptoms either of chronic cough and dyspnoea on exertion (B1) or dyspnoea at work and bronchial hyperreactivity (B2). The control group (group C) was randomly selected from among a population of laboratory workers. No significant differences were found among the groups with respect to the frequency of atopy but the prevalence of a positive skin reaction to wood extracts was significantly higher in the asthmatic subjects. The adjusted FVC and FEV1/FVC% were significantly higher in B1 than in the other groups; the FEV1 was lower in B1 than in B2 and in B2 than in the other groups; TLCO and KCO differed significantly in all four groups. A significant negative correlation was observed between FEV1, MEF50, TLCO and KCO and duration of exposure to wood dusts. The alveolar volumes were not significantly different between the groups and were not correlated with duration of exposure. These results confirm the observation that exposure to wood dust or to some bronchoreactive substances linked with wood working can induce chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD). Some cases of wood dust asthma seem to be related to an immediate allergic reaction, but precipitating antibodies appear to be an index of exposure rather than of disease. The decrease in diffusion capacity can be ascribed to a thickening of the alveolar capillary membranes secondary to an alveolitis like, non-symptomatic, allergic reaction.eware finely dispersed wood dust. Occupational exposure can cause serious lung disease. See this abstract: