Re: [Paddlewise] Hazards of indoor kayak building?

Ruminations on the risks of home boatbuilding and repair:

I'm not an expert on this. I do work in the health care field though, and I 
have had reason to investigate boatbuilding safety risks pretty thoroughly. 
I've also had a modest amount of personal experience with exposure to many of 
the things used in home boatbuilding.

First - with a few simple precautions and a few pieces of inexpensive 
protective gear, home boatbuilding and repair can be a very enjoyable and 
very safe hobby. Very *very* few people will get into trouble if they use 
good sense. Most of us don't get into trouble even though we don't use good 
sense often enough.

What follows are the things I've been told and have read about the risks 
involved and the appropriate preventive measures to take. I wish I had gotten 
these through my thick skull when I built my first boat, but I didn't. To the 
extent they are followed, they will limit the articles of clothing destroyed, 
pretty much prevent any ill effects of your health, keep your house cleaner 
and your wife and dog happier, and make eventual painting and varnishing 
worlds easier. (Am I perfect about following all of these? Of course not. Am 
I therefore taking some risks with my own health? I probably am - but just 
because I'm stupid doesn't mean you have to be.)


----------------------------
RISKS -
 
I've read that you can get away with building one boat without using any 
precautions at all. I don't believe that. I know for sure it isn't a good 
idea.

My experience with one very popular maker of S&G kits is that the hazard 
warnings in the instructions were woefully inadequate.

All of the epoxies are toxic. All of them. WHETHER THEY HAVE A BAD SMELL OR 
NOT IS NOT THE POINT! (Sorry for the shouting.) With enough repetitive 
exposure, almost anyone will develop an allergy to them, manifested by a 
really bad itching skin rash (similar to poison ivy) which lasts days to 
weeks after last exposure, and/or significant difficulty breathing. Once 
you're allergic, each exposure gets worse than the last. If you're careless 
over a period of time, there can be ill effects on internal organs too.

All of the things we mix with epoxy are also toxic. Even "wood flour" and 
extensive exposure to sawdust can be cancinogenic if we breathe them in. If 
one uses solvents like acetone the danger is even greater, whether the 
solvent is beathed in or absorbed through the skin. Perhaps worst of all are 
the "thixotropics", the thickeners like colloidal silica and phenolic 
microballoons which, if breathed in, cause (not "can cause") a progressive 
scar accumulation in your lungs.

Even things which aren't poisonous can cause troubles. Pieces of sawn wood 
and flecks of sawdust, for example, have a nasty hibit of finding their way 
around the corners of eyeglasses and into an eye. 
-----------------------
PREVENTIVE MEASURES - 

Always have the room vented when you're using epoxy or organic solvents. If 
you can install a vent fan, that's ideal.  

Have a good shop vacuum in the shop at all times, and use it frequently! 
Connect it to your sander whenever you're using a power sander (the little 
"dust collectors" on  sanders are more decoration than functional).

Wear a vapor-barrier mask (available at most good paint stores - NOT a dust 
mask!) any time you're working with epoxy resin or using an organic solvent 
like acetone. Keep the vapor-barrier elements of the mask in an airtight 
ziplock bag whever they're not in use. 

Use the vapor barrier when varnishing or painting too, unless you can do that 
in a well-ventilated outside area.

Wear a HEPA filter dust mask when you're sanding or when you're using 
something like a bandsaw or other bench saw extensively. For very brief 
exposures to larger particles I use a surgical mask, but a HEPA filter is 
definitely better. 

Use vinegar to clean up after your epoxy, not acetone.

Wear a tyvek coverall when working with epoxy. If you're generating a lot of 
sawdust, wash yourself and your clothing before you wander around the rest of 
the house very much (and/or wear the tyvek at those times too). You'll ruin 
far fewer items of street clothing that way.

When sanding or sawing, wear eye protection, like a pair of impact-resistent 
goggles, even if you wear glasses normally. It's a nuisance, but it's less of 
a nuisance than a trip to the emergency department of your hospital, to have 
a piece of wood or a grain of sawdust dug out of your eye.

Wear latex or similar gloves **whenever** working with epoxy, even for a 
moment. Do not allow epoxy to contact your skin. If it does get on you, do 
NOT clean it off with acetone. Use vinegar and/or waterless hand cleaner. 
Undiluted dish soap works fairly well too.

Keep a pair of old shoes, preferably with paper shoe covers, in your shop. 
Wear these in the shop, and take them off as you leave.

No doubt there are a dozen other good things which can or should be done, but 
those above are some of the most important. Do they sound like compulsive 
rituals? That's okay. I'll happily be compulsive rather than sick or unable 
to work on my boats any longer. 

Bill Hansen

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