I am a woman that has a home remodeling project list that is probably bigger than Bob Villa's. I happened to be sanding a floor to prepare it to apply the polyurethane. While sanding, I noticed there was an exceptionally large amount of dust that was floating around the room. I failed to wear a respirator before preparation for my project.
I decided to look up health effects from wood dust and found that OSHA states that
“Exposure to wood dust has long been associated with a variety of adverse health effects, including dermatitis, allergic respiratory effects, mucosal and nonallergic respiratory effects, and cancer. Contact with the irritant compounds in wood sap can cause dermatitis and other allergic reactions. The respiratory effects of wood dust exposure include asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and chronic bronchitis.”
I wanted to share these findings so if anyone was preparing for a project, they certainly should look up the health effects from the substances that they are using. Polyurethane is potent enough without the added exposure to wood dust.
Let' make our projects safe.