any body know anything about allergic reactions to EPS foam? my face blew up like a balloon after shaping a marko blank.
I worked as a plant manager for 13 years with EPS in raw bead form and molded form and have known about 500 people in the industry who worked with it on a daily basis and never knew anyone who had an allergic reaction to it. EPS is a relatively inert material in and of itself. I would suspect that you were reacting to something else, maybe a bit of the blowing agent (pentane) was left in the blank, although I would not suspect that to be the case. It might have been the glue used for the stringer. Was there a sweetish smell when you were planing the blank? That would indicate that there was melting EPS which is a lot different as it is reducing to Styrene which is bad. Was it just planing or did you do sanding also? I would be curious if you were seeing a reaction to some other irritant. Allergic reactions can be hard to diagnose. Best luck in finding out & keep us posted...
Thank you very much for your input and response. Yes, I was also sanding and no sweet smell. After going to the Doc, he didn’t think it was the EPS either. I shaped EPS once before and nothing happened. I sprayed super 77 to sand paper to stick it to a pad, could that of reacted with the foam?
I’d say you are far more likely to have touched some epoxy somewhere along the line.
You could have been reacting to the solvent in the spray. Solvents are nasty as they can penetrate tissues. That is why you need to stay away from acetone when using epoxy as the acetone is the vehicle for the molecules. Like I said earlier, these type of reactions are hard to diagnose and you might just try to eliminate any solvents in the immediate area. Just my 2c.... hope you are all better!!
You could have been reacting to the solvent in the spray. Solvents are nasty as they can penetrate tissues. That is why you need to stay away from acetone when using epoxy as the acetone is the vehicle for the molecules. Like I said earlier, these type of reactions are hard to diagnose and you might just try to eliminate any solvents in the immediate area. Just my 2c.... hope you are all better!!
Howzit dean, My brother was using some JB Weld the other day and the next morning his face was all puffy and itchy and I told him to just stay away from any kind of epoxy based products because he is obviously allergic to Epoxy. Then I told him about some people can't even walk into a room where it is being used, he learned his lesson. Aloha,Kokua
Surfteach you may of solved my problem, I have acetone by were i was shaping, but no epoxy. I will get the acetone out and see what happens. I really appericate the help, like you said its hard to diagnose, but if i can, I won’t have to stop something i really enjoy doing. Thanks so much guys, I am on steriods, swellings going down.
same thing happened to me in 2009 and i almost died.
scared the hell out of everyone who saw me in the emergency room as the swelling just would not stop
feel sorry about the steroids as i was on it for two weeks and could not sleep for a almost a week going ino hallucinations like a meth addict.
that one incident pretty much stopped my board building especially with epoxy. The doctor said it would take a massive amount of tests to isolate the exact cause as there were allot of contributing factors.
but not that i have a positive air tyvek hazmat outfit i’m anxious to get back into the game it just cumbersome trying to do anything when your are dressed up like the Michelin man.
Now my corrective menicus knee surgery last week has me out for til i can get the leg back in shape to support my weight.
getting old sucks
good luck and take the right precautions before its too late.
but once sensitized it only gets worse with additional exposure from what i was warned.