Thread: Australian Red Cedar Reactions

Seer, 'feeling like crap' isn't a terribly specific symptom (), but the wood database says the following:

"......Although severe reactions are quite uncommon, Australian Red Cedar has been reported to cause skin and respiratory irritation, as well as other effects, such as asthma-like symptoms, migraine, giddiness, bronchitis, and stomach cramps. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicity and Wood Dust Safety for more information......"

It's a rule of thumb that if you react to a wood, it tends to get worse with subsequent exposure, so don't forget the mask if you still have some of that Toona left.....

Cheers,

I have worked with Cedar all my working life. All the old tradesmen that trained me as an apprentice died from cancer of one form or another, mainly lung cancer. I will not work the stuff without a positive pressure full face mask. So far, so good.

Originally Posted by rustynail

I have worked with Cedar all my working life. All the old tradesmen that trained me as an apprentice died from cancer of one form or another, mainly lung cancer. I will not work the stuff without a positive pressure full face mask. So far, so good.

I bet most of those "old tradesmen" you mention, did not wear a mask at all and probably ridiculed anyone who did.

Originally Posted by rustynail

All the old tradesmen that trained me as an apprentice died from cancer of one form or another, mainly lung cancer.

Did They Smoke as well ?

Originally Posted by auscab

Did They Smoke as well ?

Well of course we bloody well do. I spend all day in a sawmill and there is almost continuously either an unlit durry, a lit one, or the stub of one thats got out hanging from my mouth. To the uninitiated its a carcinogenic obnoxious habit, but to a benchman its a disposable lightweight air purification system.

Seriously, air quality issues in mills are quite common, because the scale and size and type of equipment makes effective dust collection difficult. It is getting better but its not quite as simple as setting up a workshop type system. Interestingly enough I have noticed a rough correlation in the old sawmill hands I knew between cancer of the lip/mouth/lung (in that order) and smoking and another between non smokers and emphysema/ shortness of breath/ bowel& stomach cancer issues. Choose your poison I guess.

Originally Posted by John.G

I spend all day in a sawmill and there is almost continuously either an unlit durry, a lit one, or the stub of one thats got out hanging from my mouth.

What could possibly go wrong?


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Originally Posted by John.G

Well of course we bloody well do. I spend all day in a sawmill and there is almost continuously either an unlit durry, a lit one, or the stub of one thats got out hanging from my mouth. To the uninitiated its a carcinogenic obnoxious habit, but to a benchman its a disposable lightweight air purification system.

Ive never really thought of a cigarette as being a type of air filter . lol . I suppose it could be looked at that way though.

I think plenty of older tradesmen worked in the most hard to see from one end of the workshop to the other for the dust choked air situations. And although its been proven to be a killer or bad for you, a lot of other things killed them 99 % of the time .
My Dad spent years orbital sanding Red Cedar. No ventilation or dust masks. He had us doing it as well . My lungs are not good . Dad was affected and had lung damage from it and from being in dusty workshop situations his workshop life . None of that was what killed him though . At 81 He had other things going on that were no good.

Obviously Its a good idea to take all the care possible . Ive never had reactions to Red Cedar which is good , I like working with it . The worst Ive reacted to is Blackbean !! same as anyone I think ? That stuff is Bad.

Rob

I think its like a lot of things in life - all things in moderation. I think a lot of us have had long term exposures to things that are now considered or even known to be bad for our health. I know I've been a moderate to heavy passive smoker most of my childhood and teenage life even though I have never put a cigarette to my lips, all due to my parents habits. Then there was the dry friction disk cutting of "super compressed fibro decking", shear cutting of fibro, plenty of dust from wood, Masonite, MDF, & particle boards, gassing from glues in plywood etc. Amazing we are all still alive.

Red Cedar usually gives me terrible headaches, at least the stuff from the Cathu SF area does.

Only one was a smoker, as I recall. What the others did when they were younger, I have no idea.
As for protection, there was none. At first, the dust was highly irritating, but after a while you became quite used to it...unfortunately. Interestingly many of them had nicknames that could be attributed to their condition....Weezer, Snuffles, Dusty, and the twins Hasp and Staple, to mention a few. I don't think any of them got past seventy.