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Post by holajonathan on Aug 12, 2021 11:23:31 GMT -5
So are you a doctor? Scientist? Air quality connoisseur? Serious question. Just curious. I appreciate the info. I get alerts on my cell phone if PM2.5 or VOCS reach a danger level in my barn or house. This only happens if I do something stupid and let a large amount of smoke out of the wood stove. Has only happened a couple times. I have rather large HEPA filters with 20 lb activated carbon prefilters (for the VOCs) that I can run if necessary. They work great but make tons of noise and scare the cats. It always comes back to the cats, doesn't it? What is just as concerning as the wood stoves is the impact of my natural gas oven / stove on indoor air quality. Natural gas burns very cleanly compared to other fossil fuels, but not so cleanly that you want to breathe the combustion byproduct. VOCS, NOx, lots of CO2 (not harmful per se, but undesirable) and a detectable level of CO if my AQM is placed near the stove while in use. LOL! Fair warning: there isn't a super-short answer to that question. I'm not a doctor. I studied Biochemistry and Biophysics. As an undergrad I worked in a hospital, both in the ER and also a clinical lab. After graduation, I became a research scientist, and spent about 25 years at the bench. I spent time in hospital labs, University research labs and the private sector. Most of my work was in respiratory diseases, virology and immunology, working on vaccine development and pilot-scale production. One year, for a change, I worked in a wine cellar, doing some enology and a lot of grunt work for wine production. Currently, I am a Health & Safety Engineer, focusing on Industrial Hygiene (including the respiratory protection program), hazardous waste management and pandemic response. I'm trained in both Federal and California regs, so believe me, when I say that if Cal/EPA and Cal/OSHA don't consider something to be hazardous, it's likely quite safe. Maybe not always put-it-in-your-coffee-safe, but pretty darn safe. Remember that coffee was nearly listed as a carcinogen. For all your heating options, when anything is combusted, you'll have some harmful by-products. It sounds like you have good engineering controls (ventilation) and administrative controls (monitoring) set up -- better than some companies. Those are far more effective than PPE like respirators: a last line of defense, in case everything else fails. BTW, CO would be your biggest hazard without adequate ventilation. And, yes, we must definitely not stress out the cats. Thank you. I had a sense that you weren't "shooting from the hip" with regard to the respiratory protection advice. This confirms it. |
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Post by holajonathan on Aug 12, 2021 11:33:39 GMT -5
How do you figure it was “hijacked”? I answered a question about solder fumes, which sparked inquiries about other potential contaminants in the workspace. I answered those as well. The question about my qualifications to give those was perfectly legitimate as well. I answered as completely as I could, so people can judge for themselves with how big a grain of salt to take those answers. This includes my answer to Ann’s initial question about soldering fumes. Cats were mentioned only in passing. Geez, sometimes you're really touchy, stephan . You guys just went off on a bit of tangent and got pretty technical, that's all. I didn't say anything about cats. I really don't care, just wanted to bring Ann's thread back to her topic because I read her post differently and wanted to ask what type of polishing she meant. Sheesh. If I want to go too deep into the weeds I will try to move the conversation to private messages in the future as to not bore / distract / confuse anyone. As for passing references to cats... I'm afraid I can't control that. |
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Post by rockjunquie on Aug 12, 2021 13:47:14 GMT -5
Geez, sometimes you're really touchy, stephan . You guys just went off on a bit of tangent and got pretty technical, that's all. I didn't say anything about cats. I really don't care, just wanted to bring Ann's thread back to her topic because I read her post differently and wanted to ask what type of polishing she meant. Sheesh. If I want to go too deep into the weeds I will try to move the conversation to private messages in the future as to not bore / distract / confuse anyone. As for passing references to cats... I'm afraid I can't control that. It's all good. This is not the first time a thread evolved into 2 or more subjects.  That was good information that was exchanged. We would have missed it in PMs.
What? You mean you can't control cats?? LOL! |
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Post by holajonathan on Aug 12, 2021 15:09:12 GMT -5
If I want to go too deep into the weeds I will try to move the conversation to private messages in the future as to not bore / distract / confuse anyone. As for passing references to cats... I'm afraid I can't control that. It's all good. This is not the first time a thread evolved into 2 or more subjects. That was good information that was exchanged. We would have missed it in PMs.
What? You mean you can't control cats?? LOL! I control cats. No, wait, that's not right. Cats control me. And if I don't accede to their demands for food, play, and affection, they will find a different human to enslave. |
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Aug 12, 2021 18:11:30 GMT -5
Geez, sometimes you're really touchy, stephan . You guys just went off on a bit of tangent and got pretty technical, that's all. I didn't say anything about cats. I really don't care, just wanted to bring Ann's thread back to her topic because I read her post differently and wanted to ask what type of polishing she meant. Sheesh. If I want to go too deep into the weeds I will try to move the conversation to private messages in the future as to not bore / distract / confuse anyone. As for passing references to cats... I'm afraid I can't control that. It's all good -- cats included. |
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Post by fantastic5 on Aug 19, 2021 13:02:31 GMT -5
fantastic5 Ann, your thread got a bit hijacked there, so I wanted to ask when you said polishing I took it as jewelry polishing, not rock polishing. Am I correct? If so, I would think an N-95 would be fine. Do you have a jeweler's bench polisher or do you use a Foredom with small buffs? Yes, I was referring to jewelry polishing specifically. I use both, a bench system and small buffs on my generic flex shaft. Just neither are directly ventilated. I always keep my 'fit test' N-95s from the hospital as they are clean. But I do think I want to invest in a 3M respirator. May be overkill, but I don't mind being extra safe. And I don't mind the deep dive into air quality. |
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Post by Rockoonz on Aug 19, 2021 15:05:45 GMT -5
fantastic5 Ann, your thread got a bit hijacked there, so I wanted to ask when you said polishing I took it as jewelry polishing, not rock polishing. Am I correct? If so, I would think an N-95 would be fine. Do you have a jeweler's bench polisher or do you use a Foredom with small buffs? Yes, I was referring to jewelry polishing specifically. I use both, a bench system and small buffs on my generic flex shaft. Just neither are directly ventilated. I always keep my 'fit test' N-95s from the hospital as they are clean. But I do think I want to invest in a 3M respirator. May be overkill, but I don't mind being extra safe. And I don't mind the deep dive into air quality. Your exhaust fan is definitely your first line for metalwork, or anything that involves fumes, be sure to use it and keep your work as close to it as possible reasonably. There is a unit out there that can be set under a bench pin or solder station or polisher on a jewelers bench that can exhaust out or recirculate through a hepa filter. It has a saw scrap container built in that is quite handy with sterling prices as they are, and soon will be. Also whole room hepa filter units that can keep the air really clean. Mask is a must, I use one for anything involving particles of any size or organic vapors, but they are quite limited unless you're talking hood and backpack, especially if you have a non standard shape face and facial hair. |
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That was good information that was exchanged. We would have missed it in PMs. 
... to the New Guys from The ChatBox V.2 Crew