For 25 years I worked as a carpenter and woodworker under all of the extreme conditions many of you are familiar with — breathing in clouds of dust, fiberglass, concrete, whatever, all with no problems whatsoever. About three years ago I tore my rotator cuff and temporarily (I thought) stopped working with wood — went through surgery, went back to school, got a desk job. Now I want to get back to work again, but have developed a serious problem. Whenever I breathe in any wood dust ( I made two bird houses last weekend and this happened), I develop a pressure in my head that builds into a migraine headache that lasts 2-3 days. Taking Zyrtec at first sign of a problem reduces the severity of it, but I do feel the effects for days, and it is making me rethink all of the plans for the rest of my life, including moving to a smaller house with a shop.
Has anyone else had this happen or could anyone suggest an alternative to living with drugs or giving up my life’s passion altogether? I remember an old article that had some sort of positive pressure respirator, but it didn’t apply to my needs at the time and it looked uncomfortable — does anyone have experience with one of those?
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Sue
Replies
Sue,
There are numerous respirator choices out there. The positive pressure respirator you mention is probably overkill. In both my full and part time professions I have the opportunity to specify and wear several types of respirators, ranging from simple dust masks to self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA).
With my woodworking, I have had excellent luck with good dust control practices and the use of an N-95 respirator (when I am creating a lot of fine dust). Essentially an N-95 is a beefed up dust mask. The N-95 respirator is the most common particulate filtering facepiece respirator and filters out at least 95% of airborne particles.
I would suggest picking up a box and giving them a try. They are inexpensive and effective.
Hope this helps.
Depends on the type of wood, in my case. I have always had allergies, and depending on the wood I am working with, I can really get a "head full". Walnut, mahogany, cedar are really problematic while oak, pine, maple are not as serious an issue. Cherry is in the middle. Any processes that makes wood dust airborne are problems, however, sawing on a table saw, sanding on a lathe and emptying my dust collector are the worst. What I use, in addition to decent dust collection, are two types of respirators. 1) a 3M rubber mask (nose and mouth) style with two side canister filters ($30). Good for general shop wear. and 2) A Trend Airshield full face shield with battery driven blower ($200). I use this during lathe work. It is cool and very effective. I never found the general issue, paper mask style respirators very effective. My outlook is that we think nothing of $25 for a decent router bit, so $30 for something that lets me woodwork without pain is a bargain.
Hope this helps.
Thanks to everyone who has made suggestions. I just hope I want to work with wood badly enough to put up with the annoyance of wearing a respirator. And perhaps I will find (and learn to specialize in) a species that it not so problematic.
Sue
Doctor
Number one, see a doctor. Taking medical advise from people off the web is one or two percent dumber than taking legal advise from people off the web. Which is a few steps dumber than messing with a wildcat's ass with a handful of cockleburs.
Number two, I'm allergic to horses. Really allergic. Like eyes swollen shut allergic. So I don't ride. It makes me happy, and it makes the horses happy. Horses hate me. I never met a horse I couldn't fall off. I can fall of a merry-go-round.
Number three, I have migraines. I've never noticed a tie between my migraines and my allergies.
Number four, when you're considering numbers two and three, re-read number one. Every time.
Good luck!
Dumber than a bag of hammers
Jammersix:
I guess I am naive and think that posters really read previous posts before adding their comments. I didn't see any medical advice dispensed in any of the posts. Simply stated, fellow woodworkers have tried to help Suzy understand the methods they use to avoid dust and the woods that they have found to be particularly aggravating. Suzy expresses a real interest in woodworking - a trait that encourages people to help.
I seem to have developed the same issue. I've had allergy tests done and have "no allergies". I've recently bought the Trend Airshield but have limited time using it, it seems like a good idea but it's hard for me to keep it on all of the time. I've been working so much I haven't been able to get started on (or finish) anything at home for a while but that will change soon. I may eventually have to give up woodworking but not yet. My approch; wear the mask, blow yourself off with air before leaving, wash up and and use a sinus rinse when done.
Good luck, those headaches are killer.
I work for Intel, maybe I can get a discount on a bunny suit!! That would freak out the neighbors huh?
Mousejockey
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