hey all I was wondering if anyone out there has developed any wood allergies.two weeks ago we were at the lumber mill picking up glued up bartop and nosing, that night icould not stop itching.by the next morning my eyes were all puffed and red and my neck was equally as irritated. wwwell that was two weeks ago and I’m still feeling it.after talking with the guy at the mill it turns out he was cutting leopard wood so i am hoping that is what i am having the reaction to. to get too my point the bar top we picked up was poplar and i wanted to see if others had reactions to poplar
sorry for rambling
noah
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Tips for protecting your personal information when using Wi-Fi-connected devices.
Featured Video
Video: Build a Fireplace, Brick by BrickHighlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
Poplar is probably real low on the list of woods people might have a sensitivity to. Just off the top of my head, a number of what we'd call exotics have various things in them that can irritate people. Oils, silica, and Osage dust I've heard is actually a mild nervous system toxin.
Tannins and other chemicals in the wood can react with your skin. Different people to varying degrees. Walnut turns my fingers almost pitch black for a week if I break a sweat while touching it. Cherry I love to death but it makes my sinuses squeeze into my eye sockets.
You might try an OTC anti allergy, a benadryl or along that line. If its skin irritation and bad enough to be worth a trip to a doc, steroid creams are a godsend.
"Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think -- there are no little things" - Bruce Barton
After many years I finally realized I reacted badly to poplar and mahogany dust.
If I was on the miter saw or ripping on a table saw, the next day it would seem like I'd come down with the flu. It could take a week or more for it to clear out of me.
Now I wear a small respirator or good dust mask and no longer have the problem.
Funny thing is, only those two woods do me in. Go figure... Buic
You can tell your wife tonight that statistically, you're kind of a one in a million kind of guy. I guess that'd mean in China there would be about 4000 folks just like you. Scary."Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think -- there are no little things" - Bruce Barton
Ipe does it for me. I had no idea that much mucus existed.
Andy
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig." Robert A. Heinlein
"Get off your dead #### and on your dying feet." Mom
Hmm, I'm connecting some dots. . . my eyes have been killing me for the last week or so, during which time I've been making lots of dust with jatoba and ipe. I wonder.zak
Could be. I figured it out during a photo shoot I did when I worked for FWW. The author was making an ipe table, and even with the dust collector going, I had to leave the shop occasionally.
I've noticed that the Sanderply Home Depot sells has a similar effect.Andy
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig." Robert A. Heinlein
"Get off your dead #### and on your dying feet." Mom
Andy, Ipe gets me too. Built a bunch of railings a few years back. Lots of ripping and cutting, inside the garage. Felt like the worst cold I'd ever had. Red cedar gets to me sometimes too. Brudoggie
Yeah, cedar gets me sneezing too. Since both are rot resistant, I wonder if it's a similar chemical?Andy
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig." Robert A. Heinlein
"Get off your dead #### and on your dying feet." Mom
Dont know if this counts (as a wood or an allergy), but if I dont wear a mask when working with MDF I get sore throat and packed sinuses.
from what i understand, any dust (wood, resin, etc.) is a senitizing agent. You absorb so much, and if you are inclined, then poof, you develop an allergy to the agent.
Now, any bit will set it off.
Like poison ivy, you are fine pulling it all day, then one season, poof.
Not poplar but recently I was using Makore' for the first time. It felt like I was breathing pepper. My nose started feeling raw and very runny.
I hear cocobolo and other rosewoods are trouble. Cocobolo is in the poison ivy family I'm told. I've been trying to find out about the Makore'.
Sometimes I think it might be a good idea to just start using a filter mask regularly.
Guy over at one of my wood suppliers told me that once he sold some spalted Maple turning stock to a customer, and about a month later a friend of his told him he had died of a lung infection caused by the fungus spores in the spalting.
There was a thread on this about 6-8 months ago that I did for my dermatologist.
You said he was cutting Leopard wood? This sounds like lacewood, It is known to be very allergenic to many people. Many of the exotics are this way.
Here you will find of list of many of the toxic woods. Lacewood is not listed on the following report but it will cause reactions very similar to cocobola.
http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/roche/rec.wood.misc/wood.toxic
Hope this helps.
MK
Dunno...
Turns out I'm not even alergic poison ivy. Pull it out by hand.
Just lucky I guess........gotta be a PIA to be a wood worker and be alergic to wood.
a wood worker and be allergic to wood
Could be worse you could be a gynecologist.
ROFLMAO
U R Right.......That would be a bicth.
Does sheetrock cause an allergetic reactin might be why I HAVE BEEN ITCHING SO BAD LATELY.
Does sheetrock cause an allergetic reactin
Not really. But I'm no skin doctor.....just a part-time, self-thought protologist ;-)
The soft, fuzzy stuff behind the sheetrock can be a pain sometimes though.
The drywall dust can definitely be a irritant to nose and lungs. The dust will also dry out your skin if enough gets on you. Itchin scratchin and hives are allergic reactions to whatever offends your immune system.
I had a manager of a local lumber store over to show him my shop. He started reacting immediately, noting that he had recently (within the last month or so), developed a reaction to cedar. He was puzzled because he did not see any cedar in my shop. Actually, I had been working some Spanish Cedar, but it looks like mahagony, not cedar. He felt better when I told him it WAS cedar. but this was new to him and he has been managing for over 18 yrs. Hope it doesn't last!!!
"The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a governmental program" -Ronald Reagan