Is resin dust ACTUALLY toxic?

It's not about the fumes. It's about the fact that dust is small particles that get stuck in your lungs and up from the inside out. Cooking flour, fine sand, metal or wood filings, dry plaster... it doesn't matter. They are all bad for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumoconiosis
http://ezinearticles.com/?Dangers-of-Dust-in-the-Workplace&id=138342
http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/...ly-is-dust-and-why-can-it-be-so-dangerous.htm


Sometimes fumes are released when you sand IF the resin was thinned with chemical thinners to make it easier to pour during casting. And if you heat resin, you also risk releasing fumes if it gets adequately softened or starts to melt.

So get your b/f to wear a mask ASAP, or a respirator would be even better. It is a matter of extended or repeated exposure, sanding resin once won't kill you, but this stuff will build up in your system and can cause unrepairable damage.

 

No, it's not toxic in the same sense that baking/melting styrofoam is toxic or painting with Two-Pack paint is toxic etc. But it certainly isn't harmless or good for you. When you see ppl on TV that work in a prototyping environment, if they do any sanding they are wearing full respirators (and probably have an extraction fan running nearby too); because for them, it's a workplace hazard that they are exposed to every day. If you are exposed to a lot of dust over a couple of days, you might get a blocked sinus. If you do it over several weeks or months, you risk permanent damage to the lungs. I do know someone who has been doing a lot of sanding of resin in the last couple of years and only wearing paper masks, and using large industrial extractors that did not really extract dust from the localised area where the dust was being created. This person got very ill and now has permanently reduced lung function.

 

A dollmaker I know got lung cancer because of inhaling porcelain dust. It really doesn't make sense to take this risk when wearing a mask is so easy.

 

Yes, it is difficult to separate facts from speculation sometimes. Best to clarify!

"should you even lick a doll?":XD LOL. I have never been tempted to do this but do have a bad habit of licking my paint brushes to point the tips

 

haha Tami I've done the same thing (licked a brush) = mouthfull of retarder BLECH!!

Speaking from experience I spent several months with severe breathing difficulties due resin dust. I inhaled at the wrong time when cleaning up after a sanding/dremmeling session and copped a lungfull of powdery particles. A chest x-ray showed I had several shadows where the particles had entered and adhered to the lining of my lungs in places - I had to go on a long course of nebulised inhalants (inhaled vapour) to lubricate my lungs, preventing hardening or rigid adhesions - that was last year and even now I will occasionally get short of breath - all up its a 7 year healing process, it takes that long for the cell lining in the lungs to completely regenerate.

So no while it isnt toxic it can be dangerous. I always wore a face-mask and respirator and since my incident I wear it even when I clean-up with the vacuum - just to be sure...

 

Yea, I agree with everyone else XD Used to not wear a mask while sanding paperclay, but one day I just couldnt stop coughing and my chest hurt so badly ;A; now I wear a mask during everything I do with fine particles.

Van Gogh went insane before he tried to eat his paint (and drank turpentine!) but I do know that back in the day they ate paint if they were poor since it had egg white in it.

 

Polyurethane is hazardous when it's not yet mixed, when it's freshly mixed, when it's heated (or burned) after curing and probably while decomposing. When it's solid, the chemicals are locked in and inert. Sanding releases dust, which is bad for you, not because the resin is toxic, but because the dust is just bad. Living in the desert can give you silicosis, working in bakery or somewhere that works with wood. Any. Kind. Of. Dust. Is bad if it gets into your lungs.

 

Basically, it's similar to asbestos. NOT toxic. But very VERY dangerous.

The problem isn't so much that the dust is toxic, the problem's that you body can't degrade it. Basically, once it's in, it's almost impossible to get out. It will do continuous damage as long as it's there, and your body won't be able to do anything about it (other than maybe create growths around it?).

Yes, any kind of dust is bad if it gets in your lungs, but non-degradable dust is much much *worse*.

Here's a (maybe) helpful article:
http://www.seqair.com/skunkworks/Tools/Respirators/Respirators.html

~*Mystaia

 

Mystaia, yes similar to asbestos. My understanding is (and I might not be entirely correct) the fine particles get in your lungs and your body cannot degrade or expel it, so it forms tissue around it, (same way that it builds tissue around a bullet or other foreign object left in your body) and the more of this tissue, the less lung-tissue is able to be used to transfer oxygen to the bloodstream, which leads to problems of all sorts.

Flour or sawdust may not be as bad, but I think if one is exposed to a lot of it, it would still cause problems.

 

@twigling
You're exactly right.
I think sawdust can cause nasal cancer? And breathing in flour can cause asthma, I think?

 

Do NOT lick brushes EVER. Even a new brush often has insecticides all over them to keep bugs and moths from eating the hair (if it's not a synthetic). And who knows what they put on the synthetics, too??? (Usually something starchy to keep that original point... which has NOT been cleared for human consumption!)

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As for the resin dust AND spray coatings AND thinners and paint-cleaners... WEAR A RESPIRATOR!

I also had an art teacher who died of cancer. Art supplies have all kinds of stuff that you don't want in your body. It's kind of crazy not to wear a respirator. Yeah--I know how it is... I've done stuff without putting on a respirator... but seriously, that's just a ridiculous thing to do... and I know I shouldn't. Just stupidity and laziness...