My wife and I just refinished a piano - the parts we could do outside
we did, but obviously we had to do some work inside. We used stripper
to remove most of the existing stain and then sanded the rest off.
This resulted in ALOT of red dust everywhere. My question - although
we did wear dust masks, what kind of health hazards are we looking at?
We hung up plastic to prevent the dust from going through the house,
but it still managed to get everywhere.
I'm just concerned that we're ingesting it on a daily basis now because
it seems to be in places we hadn't expected. Perhaps I am
overreacting? Anything I can do for us or is the damage done?
Thanks,
Michael
One thing is to learn from what happened. Sanding dust will migrate
everywhere, period. You have to collect it at the source, like with
shop-vac and gore-tex filter connected to sander.
A vac with that sort of filter will help collect the debris now, but
it's a much bigger project, obviously. Back when, I noticed such fine
dust settling 15-20 feet from the source, indoors, in "still" air.
Dust particles above about 1 micron don't make it to your lungs;
smaller than that down to about .25 micron get there and stay,
according to USCG studies.
J
"Michael" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> This resulted in ALOT of red dust everywhere. My question - although
> we did wear dust masks, what kind of health hazards are we looking at?
> We hung up plastic to prevent the dust from going through the house,
> but it still managed to get everywhere.
>
> I'm just concerned that we're ingesting it on a daily basis now because
> it seems to be in places we hadn't expected. Perhaps I am
> overreacting? Anything I can do for us or is the damage done?
Once a modern finish (modern being no lead) is cured, it is not considered
toxic. If by ingestion, you meat it is getting in your mouth, I'd not be
concerned about it. If you mean inhaling, it is probably no more (or no
less) toxic than breathing sawdust with no finish.