We used to smother ourselves with baby powder back in the 70’s to fill the skin pores. Maybe you could try that before you suit up. Try to work in a cool room if you wear a suit or you’re going to over heat.
That could be a good practice. However, you might want to put on that respirator before “talcing up”. Ground talc is a moderate pulmonary irritant in its own right, and seems to be suspect in exacerbating (if not causing) silicosis when inhaled in combination with silica dust. “Sanded glass fibers” = “silica dust”. Probably not enough of an additional hazard to get worked up about, but if you’ve got the respirator handy anyway…
Wear gloves. I like nitrile best. Disposible gloves are better because reusbles require the use of industrial solvents to clean. Reusable latex gloves are NOT a good means of protection. Acetone will penetrate these within a few hours of work. If your working with epoxies everyday and are using these, replace these every morning.
Do not allow clean up solvents to touch skin. Epoxy molecules are quite large and don’t penetrate the skin easily without a vehicle. Acetone is a great vehicle. The best way to eliminate risk is to eliminate the solvents all together. Clean up sqeegees with scrap glass cut offs. Use cheap chip brushes for hot coats and throw them away.
Work in a clean environment with adaquate ventilation.
In the case of sanding epoxy:
Cover up before sanding. Wear gloves. Use talc or corn starch as a barrier to dust.
Always work in a clean environment with adaquate ventilation.
Wash after sanding. A shower including hair wash.
In the case of what epoxy to use. Generally using an epoxy system with a cycloaliphatic amine hardener will be safer. These are more expensive but as you are probably finding out, WELL WORTH THE MONEY!!! BUT many of these are still mixed with straight chain aliphatics and/or phenol or nonylphenol because companies like to cut corners and use cheaper chemicals any time they can. Unfortunately not everything is always evident on the label or even on the MSDS. If the MSDS says anything like DETA (diethylenetetramine), TETA (triethlylenetetramine), phenol, nonypheneol, TEPA, trimethylaminomethylphenol, or formaldahyde watch out!
By the way, cycoaliphatic systems are now considered to be the Rolls Royce of epoxy systems. RR was the first American company to market cycloaliphatics in the US 25 years ago. No one else would touch the tech because of the expense of the chemicals. We didn’t care because we were working with the stuff everyday and wanted to be as safe as possible. Look around on the boat builder blogs and you’ll see that West, Systems Three and a number of other older systems are getting slammed for their toxicity and rightfully so. It wasn’t till the advent of blogs that anyone even knew any of this and even today some of these companies go after people who speak out with law suit threats. For all those years companies could sell their cheap swill at premium prices giving them huge margins with which they built big time brand presence all the while their customers were paying the price with their health. I could go on and on about this. Honestly hearing about you dilemia pisses me off because most likely it didn’t have to happen.
I had the same reaction to an off brand epoxy. i only got a small amount on me and it spread all the way up my arms. I ended up in the emergency room last night and was prescribed the same prednisone and steroid topical cream. I was just wondering how long did it take for your symptoms to go away? Just kind of wondering how long this itching is going to last.
Thanks for that info, I am keeping it as a reference, the only catch is that epoxy manufacturers here don’t want to tell us what’s in the stuff, can’t say I have had any problems though.
Latex gloves are fine if solvents aren’t used, also, the corn starch is a good tip as talc is toxic and best avoided (on babies too)
yeah it’s a minefield but no Greg was saying that acetone goes right through the latex, didn’t know that latex can be bad but did hear that mercury is used to make latex.
DO NOT USE TALCUM POWDER. Talc in it’s natural state is found in association with asbestos. Not sure if talcum powder is available any more, for that reason. Further, all you guys who dusted yourselves or your kids with talcum powder should be aware that smoking increases your risk of lung cancer by a factor of 50 (or so) over simply smoking, which is bad enough. Asbestos exposure and smoking are synergistic with respect to lung cancer.
Use cornstarch instead. Works, widely available, but doesn’t have the fragrance in it. You’ll feel real smooth and slippery. Get next to your significant other with some on, she’ll probably like it. If not, you can cook with it anyway. Thicken some gravy or whatever.
I think the rash may only be from sanding, and minute particles of glass got into cross300’s skin. All that he’s done after that is just dealing with symptions. Now I could be wrong, and I won’t dispute that epoxy can sensitize you, but I remember stripping my first 9-6 with bare forearms and wanting to skin myself, the itch was so bad. Never stripped another board after that without taking whatever precautions were available at the time.
quick spin on google: “latex sensitization” mentioned studies done on dental hygiene workers, nurses, etc. and mostly indicated mild to moderate allergic reactions in 1 to 7 % or so of users…didn’t seem too troublesome, but some studies mentioned powder-free gloves as a safer latex glove…