Replies

1. 
   Piffin | Mar 08, 2003 08:56pm | #1

   First thing to do is settle down. You are in no great danger.

   Normally I'd say take a few deep breathes to do this, but in light of your condition, let's just work on the emotional calming down

   You ain't dead yet and we're all going to die anyway, someday.

   Someone else should correct me on this, but Cast iron is almost entirely iron and the body can take care of assimilation and expeling it.

   I'm assuming no lead because you would not have needed to grind lead, but if there was lead involved, you might want to get a lead test. And then they'll probaly tell you to just calm down. If there is a dangerous level of lead, they do a chelation therapy to bind the metal and take it out of your blood. But calm down. There's nothing to indicate that you have had lead ingestion yet.

   As for dust in the bronchial tubes, there are a number of things you and or your doctor can do.

   Expectorants. a cough syrup with Guifeson(sp?) over the counter

   other expectorants are prescription. They make the wave action in the breathing tubes work harder to expell foreign debris.

   Steroids. There are several inhalant prescription steroidal medications that can ease the inflamation qwhile your body heals itself.

   Steam. Soothes and eases the inflamation and gives your body moisture to work with to expell the dust devils.

   Drink lots of water - same reasons.

   I think that the feeling you have that you need to cough something out is inflamation of the tissues that can happen with any kind of dust. A doctor can tell you whether the iron is more likely to do greater damage than other stuff like plaster or wood dust.

   So you could self treat with cough syrup containing expectorant, ibuprophen, steam treatments, and lots of water

   or

   you could go see the doc.

   or

   I could get you laughing so hard you cough it out ...

   if you don't seize right up and keel over on my floor.

   We could try the Rancid Crabtree method of treatment.

   Get a small round magnet and glue a string to it

   Swallow the magnet

   pull it up and out again to bring the metal filings up with it.

   If the glue comes loose, you can tell everyone you have a magnetic personality.

   But wouldn't that make for an interesting X-ray!

   ;)

   .

   Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   villagehandyman | Mar 08, 2003 09:14pm | #4

   thanks piffen

   in our business i am a remodeler /handyman i run into a lot of dust some times i really wonder i try to use protection but some times i wonder just the other day i was cutting into a wall to put in a glass block panel in a house built in the early seventies i cut out the drywall between two studs and 84"tall removed the piece of sheetrock and found old grey colored insulation i put on my dust mask and carefull not to raise dust removed the piece and took it outside to the trash later on i looked closer at it and read the description the brand name was rock wool and in the description it was called mineral wool i did not see the word asbestos but i am pretty sure that what it was.

   thank for your word of calm i am going to be much more carefull

1. 
   Piffin | Mar 08, 2003 09:57pm | #5

   I'll bet that I have ingested a teacupful of asbestos by breathing it, not to mention all the other cough, cough, crap

   But my chest X-rays show no spots or scars.

   My bronchii are more sensitive than most folks' and shut me down asthmatically so that has probably stopped most of it from going deep to the lungs. But the human body is a wonderful self regenerative system Your nose hairs did keep most of it out. That's why you blew black snot. But remember the dustmask in the future. I skip it sometimes but they are always handy. The sensitivities get worse with age - must be cumulative, like hearing loss..

   Excellence is its own reward!

2. 
   benraymond | Mar 08, 2003 10:00pm | #6

   Don't worrry - rock wool is not asbestos. They just had a TOH show on how it's coming back as an insulator. The guy installing it had a dust mask, but Steve and the manufacturing rep didn't have anything on, and they were a few feet away.

   Your first defence is to try hard not to breathe any of that stuff. Get one of the cheap masks - they're better than nothing.

   Your body does a pretty good job of trapping that stuff and getting rid of it - that's why it's in your snot and not at the bottom of your lungs. Yet another reason not to smoke - smoking destroys your airway's ability to clear that stuff out. It kills the little cilia (beating hairs) that move the mucous (and particles trapped in it) up to your mouth, where you can swallow it. It sounds like you won't have to take iron pills for a while.

   Iron isn't quite a benign as Piffin was saying, but it's not one of the really bad ones (Silica, beryillium, asbestos) that are known for producing their own lung syndromes. Pulmonologists don't generally go in to clean this stuff out of lungs - the particles that are worrisome are tiny and go to the really small airways of the lungs - trying to clean them out will do more harm than good. They only go after big particles (like a marble) if you manage to get them down your airway, or try to clean out a bad obstruction if you have a bad pneumonia, or in cases where they don't know what you have.

   Reactive asthma can be brought on by breathing in such crap, but unless you're developing some shortness of breath or a bad chronic cough, I'd bet you're ok. Then you'd need the steroid inhaler.

   Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

2. 
   calvin | Mar 08, 2003 08:58pm | #2

   If that's all the crap you breathe, you should be..............oh..............maybe a million more times safe than yours truly.  I'd be more grossed out with where that dust had been.

   __________________________________________

   Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.

   http://www.quittintime.com/

1. 
   DaveRicheson | Mar 08, 2003 09:11pm | #3

   Your nose and thracea probably filtered ou 85 - 90% of the dust, and follow piffens advive for the rest, if it is of great concern.

   This is another reason not to pull out those wild nose hairs!

   If you don't keep dust mask with you, be sure to grow an extra thick mustash (sp), and push it up in front of each nostril to act as a prefilter for the long nose hair :-})

3. 
   JeffBuck | Mar 09, 2003 12:13am | #7

   if that has ya worried enough to bother typing a message on the internet.....

   I'm thinking a new line of work....or a cleaner line of carpentry...is in order!

   Jeff

   Buck Construction   Pittsburgh,PA

    Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite                  

1. 
   jimblodgett | Mar 09, 2003 03:50am | #8

   Well, I'll add something I think is important.  I'm asthmatic and I've carried bronchial dialators around for years now.  I'm pretty careful about wearing a dust mask most of the time, but there are still times when I reach for that dialator to open my airways, to get that frikkin' elephant off my chest. 

   Not smart.

   When my body reacts like that it is a defense mechanism against whatever is irritating it.  By using the inhaler I am able to breath again, which is great, but then there I go inhaling MORE of whatever my body was trying to keep out in the first place, which COULD lead to disaster.

   A few years ago I started using a steroid, Flovent, daily as a preventative measure, instead of a bronchial diolater (like Primetine Mist, which is sold over the counter) and it has really helped. 

   Respritory problems are nothing to take lightly.

4. 
   Pd5190 | Mar 09, 2003 04:23am | #9

   I doubt you inhaled iron dust, but I would be concerned about mold spores, asbestos,  dried vermin droppings as well as the long dead vermin themselves and the hodge podge of other materials that could be around an old bathroom. Enough said on what the composition of the dust may be unless you plan on going back and gathering a sample and having it analysed and cultured.  If you have a family doctor who is willing to spend some time and listen to you, pay them a visit so that you get a record started of any symptoms or specific medical complaints you may have in the coming months.  And listen to your other contractors on this site and prevention is often easier than the cure. Use a good dust mask and try and ventilate enclosed places as much as possible.

5. 
   Luka | Mar 09, 2003 04:57am | #10

   Give it up dood, yer dead.

   You don't stand a chance.

   You might as well start setting your affairs in order. (Remember to leave all yer loot to me.)

   You've got about a week. You'll first notice the whites of your eyes turn green. Then you'll see hair growing on your knuckles. Then you'll notice that you have to fart big time, every morning when you crawl out of bed.

   When the hearing begins to go, then you might as well call the fambly in around the bed and say yer last goodbyes.

   I have never heard of a more painful death that terlit pipe poisoning. Man, do I feel sorry for you.

   Quittin' Time

1. 
   rreed40 | Mar 09, 2003 05:51am | #12

   One time, at remodelers camp, I was helpin' a turdherder add some new comodes to an existing 6" line in the basement of a 1912 building in downtown.

   We had to cut the line open to acheive this and guess who was elected to perform this task - No the other 1500 or so people in the building hadn't been told to hold it while we did this...you hav'nt lived until you cut into one of these with a gas powered hot saw.  Amazingly enough, I'm still alive.

2. 
   kennedy136 | Mar 09, 2003 05:56am | #13

   Luka,

          That was cold dude , but fuuuuunnnnnnnyyyyyyy!  Nothing like a little humor to lighten the situation.

                                             Mark

3. 
   hasbeen | Mar 09, 2003 07:24am | #14

   Wow Luka!  yer a docter and lawyer, too!

   Five to one, One in five, no one here gets out alive............Average Joe says:

   I'll wait here while YOU go wrestle the wild alligator.

1. 
   UncleDunc | Mar 09, 2003 07:49am | #15

   The crystal ship is being filled, a thousand girls, a thousand thrills ...

1. 
   alias | Mar 09, 2003 09:10am | #16

   there some good humor and advice here, the best is relax.....also if you have access to steam room will clean out those lungs for around a half hour or create your own with a kettle peppermint and eucalytus oils in the kettle throw a double towel over your head and start breathing carefully that will loosen anything in your trachea and/ or lungs out to expectorate . and look at that stuff your spitin' out if it's brown it's workin' if it's clear there was nothing to worry about.than go for brisk walk a breathe deep and that should help. if that doesnt put your mind at ease sign up for a physical and get a chest x-ray....... but my friend most importantly death is inevitable, but to cheat it by putting your mind at ease . do whatever is necessary.. stay happy and healthy

6. 
   BKCBUILDER | Mar 09, 2003 05:35am | #11

    Your a dead man.......it will be a story line on CSI....killed by a staf infection that was growing in the soil pipe fpr years, you turned it into a  concentrated powder, and inhaled it staight into your bloodstream. Toilets and soil stacks.......just think of the biologicals growing in that damp nutrient rich environment............got a will?