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Well, I got my first experience with the health hazards of working wood this weekend. I am working on dulcimer #1 in American walnut and I was shaping the end blocks, which, of course requires lots of sawing and sanding. Yesterday I noticed my hands are very dry, red, and itchy. So after talking with my girlfriend and researching, I realized the source of the problem is the walnut. The medical name is dermatitis I discovered. I have been lathering my hands with lotion and it seems to be helping.

Has anyone ever experienced dermatitis and what did you do to treat it and prevent it? Any thoughts on wearing surgical gloves? In general, what precautions do you take to prevent health hazards with working wood in your shop? Thanks for helping out a newbie.

Dermatitis is a general term meaning inflammation of skin. It can be from any source. You might have dried your skin out from handling the wood a lot, or you may actually be having a reaction to the chemicals in the wood.

You must protect your lungs. Even dust from wood that you are not allergic to can eventually damage your lungs. This is like smoking or breathing asbestos. Wear a good face mask.

Protect your skin with long sleeve shirts. Use gloves if that helps you. Maybe wear coveralls and leave them at the door of your shop. Shower after each work session. If you find a wood that you are really allergic to, don't use it anymore.

Was this wood well seasoned. Black walnut chips that hit my skin while felling trees will cause redness, but I have never had a similar reaction with dry black walnut (currently almost through a dread build with well seasoned black walnut).

A number of members speak with a doctor about the potential for allergic reaction to certain woods, mostly exotics, and ask for epipens (brand name for epinephrine delivery device). More than one builder has experienced serious allergic reaction, such as throat swelling, from some exotics. Never heard of such reaction to walnut, but everybody is different. In any case, tell you doctor and/or dermatologist about this incident and seek further advice.

The normal precautions already mentioned (long sleeves, mask, etc.) are also advisable.

Disclaimer: I am married to a nurse, so I know a just enough medical info to be dangerous.

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Aaron Craig

Walnut is one of the woods I have issues with. Not contact dermititis, instead I get upper respiratory symptoms. Wearing a respirator helps, but I can still pick up dust on my clothes to cause problems later unless I shower and change. As a result I almost never work with it, it just isn't worth the hassle and health risk.

For contact dermititis on your hands and forearms, using a good barrier cream may help. It reduces exposure by helping prevent dust from getting in your pores.

Still need to worry as you can become more sensitive with time and progress to more severe symptoms

from what I have read, sensitivity to Walnut is reasonably common.

-jd

I live in the North East and it gets pretty dry here in the winter so the skin of my hands gets dry if I do nothing. If I start sanding wood...any kind of wood, its gets much worse. The reason is that the dust gets on your hands, and wicks away even more moisture from your skin. If you have any cracked skin, which can happen even if you dont know it is cracked, the dust will get in those cracks and dry your skin out even more, which will cause more cracking, burning, and swelling.
I always wear a mask when I sand because I prefer not to have my nostrils plugged by saw dust. Call me crazy. However, I recently started wearing gloves to sand because my skin was drying to the point where if I made a fist, it would crack and bleed. Now, with the gloves protecting my skin, I no longer have that issue. Now, my issue is, I feel a little girly wearing gloves and using lotion. Not sure which is worse.
Goodin, I am also working with Koa and walnut, although this time around it is Claro, not black. Since my shop is not heated, and I only go out there to sand and route, I have been wearing winter gloves lately and that really seems to be helping since my hands are not even exposed to the cold, dry air.
Hope this helped.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Tony,
What you and the boys need to get is some Bag Balm! If it's good enough for dairy farmers it's good enough for you!

Mike (mmapags from the Kit Guitar forum)

Thanks for the great advice everyone. Windsurfer - can you elaborate more on barrier cream? Im not exactly sure what you are talking about. Like a really thick lotion? Wouldn't that get all over the work?

The walnut I am using is very well seasoned. I got it from a luthier friend of mine who has had it in his shop for many years. It is very dry here in TN right now (RH around 30-35%), so I attribute some of the dryness to the weather. I have never had my hands itch and get red from the dryness though so I think it's mostly the walnut. I think i will experiment with using surgical gloves.

I keep a very clean shop. My shop is in the basement and I don't want dust going all through the house, so I have two Jet air filtration systems mounted on the ceiling. I sweep and vacuum regularly, which it seems i do as much as building! I always wear a dust mask when sanding or using saws. I'm not sure how effective the masks are that I have. I just got the cheapest ones at the hardware store. Any suggestions on appropriate, good quality dust masks?

barrier cream is a water-soluble and quickly dries so you can't really tell you have it on. Washes off with warm soapy water.

the two I am familiar with are pr88 and ply 9

here is a link to info on pr88

http://www.pr88.com/products/products_pages/pr88.htm

From what I know it is mostly applied before working with epoxy to prevent absorption thru the skin and to assist clean up when doing wet laminations -or at least that is the use I am most aquainted with.

-jd

I can eat Black Walnut dust for breakfast, no problem. But if one dusticle of Bolivian Rosewood, (Ironwood, Pau Ferro) goes up my nose, I'm dead.

Wood sensitivity is very personal: know your dust!

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https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

Hi Goodin

Recently I developed a skin sensitivity to East Indian Rosewood and/or Ebony.
It's causing dermatitus between the bottom of my eyelashes & my eyelids of
all places. I tried a barrier cream from the local drugstore but it did not help.
I bought this http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.a ... at=1,42207
"Gloves in A Bottle" from Lee Valley and so far it seems to be working.

Cheers
Bob

Me got this "official" love ~ hate relation ship with W. R. cedar.

Nothen else gets under me skin, well other than me past wives..bless them all.

Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Avon makes this lotion called silicone glove. It works really good keeping dirt and stuff out of pores. If you don't mind smelling like an old lady.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

I don't know what your definition of old lady is, but I know this old lady is not using that smelly stuff. So if you're using it, you won't smell like an old lady, you'll smell like a woodworker with a skin problem.

Back to the topic, I'm just finishing up a classical with a walnut neck, (yes it's heavy) and every time I make any dust it makes my throat burn. I've been very careful to wear a dust mask, but it isn't easy to find a good dust mask to fit a small face. A couple of weeks ago I put on a mask and noticed there was some walnut residue where the mask comes across the bridge of my nose. I developed what looked like chemical burns on the bridge of my nose and couldn't wear my glasses for days. I'll be glad when this guitar is done and no more Walnut for me. Interestingly I had forgotten that when I had some allergy testing years ago it showed I was very allergic to walnuts. So if you have a problem with the wood, I would suggest you don't eat the nuts either. Wendy

My hands are clearing up since I haven't been sawing or sanding this week. I use Rescue Cream by Bach several times a day and it works great to soothe the skin. http://www.rescueremedy.com/products/

Windsurfer, I order the pr88 barrier cream. Ill give all the other suggestions a try if the barrier cream doesn't work. It's good to know there are many options!

Another thing that should be pretty obvious is that particle size is an issue when it comes to absorption. Planing or scraping produce waste in large chunks that quickly falls to the floor. Sanding or machining produces small particles that get into pores or float around the shop until you breathe them. -another reason to trade in that angry noisy sander for a nice quiet scraper.

-jd