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  1. #31
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    Jan 2009
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    Perth, Western Australia.
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    68

    Default ... correction

    I have to confess, I didn't do enough research - and what I said about Mercurochrome being banned here, is not correct. It's still readily available from the discount chemists mobs.
    It IS banned in Switzerland, Brazil, France, Germany, and the United States - but not here. At least, not yet.

    Apparently, Mercurochrome is effective as a disinfectant, not only because of its skin-drying effect - but also because even the tiniest amounts of Mercury (or its unstable compounds) disinfects, by disrupting the metabolism of microorganisms.
    In other words, it kills bugs - very quickly, and very effectively.

    I suspect there's a lot more to it, but because Mercurochrome has been around for so long, and because no-one has ever studied its antiseptic operations in depth - nor done any major research on it, as the USFDA insist should be done, it doesn't seem likely we'll ever get any scholarly articles on Mercurochromes antiseptic actions, effects, or long-term toxicity.

    As the basic chemical (Merbromin, or more correctly, dibromohydroxymercurifluorescein) is watered-down in a big way (2mg/L, or 2% - meaning you're actually buying 98% water, in a bottle of Mercurochrome!) - and a little bottle of it goes a long way - I can't see where it rates as a "toxic" compound, as the USFDA insists it is. There's probably substantially more mercury in your imported fish, from polluted 3rd world countries waterways and oceans.

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  3. #32
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alexandra Vic
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    69
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    2,810

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Cal View Post
    Anyone used lanolin? Ever seen a shearer’s hands? Good stuff!
    I replied previously about Vitamin E cream and compared that and Urea creams. I have used lanolin applied fairly liberally at night covered with latex gloves to avoid spreading it all over the bedding. This works well as a preventative if your hands are not in a drying environment for too long (4-5 hrs was safe for me, 8-10 wasn't). However it does not promote healing as well as Vit E cream if /when cracks start to form if you are exposed for too long, so I shifted to the Vit E cream and found it a better solution.

    Also someone mentioned barrier cream above. My father was a builder and he used barrier cream applied every couple of hours if he was mixing/pouring/screeding/trowelling concrete floors or tanks back in the fifties and sixties. It was quite good at protecting his hands in that situation if applied regularly, but definitely needed regular renewal to maintain protection. He was also involved in mechanical and fitting and turning exercises, but would not use it in those activities because it tended to cause hands to slip on tools etc skinning knuckles. It was easier to clean up with Solvol etc , than have clean hands and skun knuckles after a rinse with velvet soap and water, but put up with the knuckles for a week.
    I used to be an engineer, I'm not an engineer any more, but on the really good days I can remember when I was.

  4. #33
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Canberra
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    5,124

    Default

    Pcd-gt isn't wrong with the CA glue.

    Some time back I had a bad accident on the lathe. Split a bowl in two. One half hit me in the face, breaking my nose in two places and tearing the left side open from my bridge to the cheek and the right slashed open. It was a bad accident.

    Workshop looked like a murder scene. At the hospital they cleaned me up, opened up the wounds and litterally glued me back together. No stitches! All glue!

    The doc was using CA and I told her I could have brought mine... For I was using it on the bowl to cure the cracks No doubt their stuff was "better" she retorted.

    Good story, for now I'm as handsome as ever and one is hard pressed to see any injury at all.

    I was told by a military friend that they use CA and suger if they are caught in the rough.

  5. #34
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Hoddles Creek
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    60

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    Quote Originally Posted by pedro66 View Post
    Do you suffer from split or cracked fingers from cold weather? Mine are driving me crazy.

    Regards
    Keith
    Hi Keith, like so many others, I suffer too. Particularly my left thumb. Not sure why.

    Most of the comments so far deal with treatment after the fact. Using a good quality barrier cream will help slow/stop the cracking. I would suggest that you don't use the nitrile gloves as that will encourage sweating even in cool weather and sweaty hands won't help the situation. I don't use gloves for this at all.

    When I do forget to use the barrier cream, I'll use a dob of Vaseline Intensive Care or some of the good wife's expensive Vitamin E cream (don't tell her please) and cover the split with some fabric bandaids (not the plastic ones) to hold the cream there for a day or two or three. This stops the edges of the crack drying out and that, in turn, speeds the healing process.

    Good luck
    Doug

  6. #35
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    crowie is online now Life's Good, Enjoy each new day & try to encourage
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
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    Faulconbridge, Lower Blue Mountains
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    Quote Originally Posted by pcd-gt View Post
    All sound like good regimes to try long term. I also have to deal with it all the time. I am a miniature/modelmaker .
    G'Day and welcome to a top forum sir...
    I'm looking forward to seeing you handiwork in the Toymakers and Modeling sections of the forum with, I hope, lots of photos and notes please.
    Cheers, crowie

  7. #36
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Murray Bridge
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    4

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    I have suffered this in the past but since learning the woodworking trick of using superglue on the area all is well. A couple of drops is all it takes. Instant relief - keeps the air out of the cut and by the time it wears off the wound is healed. Simples.

  8. #37
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    US
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    3,075

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    Quote Originally Posted by onetrack View Post
    As the basic chemical (Merbromin, or more correctly, dibromohydroxymercurifluorescein) is watered-down in a big way (2mg/L, or 2% - meaning you're actually buying 98% water, in a bottle of Mercurochrome!) - and a little bottle of it goes a long way - I can't see where it rates as a "toxic" compound, as the USFDA insists it is. There's probably substantially more mercury in your imported fish, from polluted 3rd world countries waterways and oceans.
    I checked this, because things usually aren't banned in the US unless they're proven bad. FDA has a term "GRAS" (generally regarded as safe) here. Mecurochrome (which I used in great quantity as a kid) was regarded as probably safe, but GRAS status was taken away because it has mercury in it. In order to be proven safe instead of assumed safe, someone would have to pay to get it recertified, and nobody ever did because it's good, but not better than other currently available goods.

    Since it's sold in a pharmacy as an antiseptic, apparently, it can be sold but not transported commercially as such across state borders unless someone pays the dues to have it recertified as safe.

    Silver gel is probably its replacement here these days. Does the same thing.

    So, the FDA doesn't have a comment on whether or not the low concentration of mercury is safe when used as part of the mecurochrome, they just have no opinion at all. They have a general position that mercury is toxic, because....it is. You can still buy old used bottles on ebay.

    For these dry cracky issues, I'd still use beeswax or CA glue here. Mercurochrome (Sp?) was tinted red-orange here - the mark of a kid with a cut in those days was a big splotch of orangey red created by it.

    (I really like the silver gel better. The mrs. before kids was a wound care physical therapist, so we got some of the better stuff as castoffs from reps - full tubes, but now that she's not working, we don't get freebies. The stuff at the pharmacy seems to be decent but not as good as the hospital supply in terms of consistency, size of the tube and ease of use. The hospital stuff was "goopier").

  9. #38
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    Perth
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    Quote Originally Posted by aitch View Post
    I have suffered this in the past but since learning the woodworking trick of using superglue on the area all is well. A couple of drops is all it takes. Instant relief - keeps the air out of the cut and by the time it wears off the wound is healed. Simples.
    Back in 2010 I fell through a plate glass door. I was lucky as I only cut my left arm, left hand and shoulder (for which I only had 27 stitches) but I had multiple small cuts on my scalp and face. The cuts on my face were dealt with using Steristrips but the dozen or so on my scalp were closed by twisting some hair on either sides of the cut and then adding a dob of super glue. Must try the super glue on hand cracks next time.

  10. #39
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
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    Warragul Vic
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    1,093

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    Quote Originally Posted by rob streeper View Post
    If moisturizers don't work you might be deficient in Vitamin C or niacin.
    I agree, try boosting the citrus fruits and other Vitamin C rich fruits in winter. They may help with the splitting problem. I get it sometimes too.

  11. #40
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Canberra
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    5,124

    Default

    The hair tying with CA is rather clever.

  12. #41
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia.
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    68

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Euge View Post
    I agree, try boosting the citrus fruits and other Vitamin C rich fruits in winter. They may help with the splitting problem. I get it sometimes too.
    I suspect that Vitamin D is probably the main deficiency in the dry skin/split fingers problem. It appears the problem worsens during Winter for me, as well as for a lot of other people.
    We get a large proportion of our Vitamin D via sun exposure, and sun exposure is very limited in the South of Australia in Winter.
    Interestingly, a mate from Nannup, W.A. fell 4M off a ladder and broke a leg and his elbow last year, and he spent a considerable length of time in hospital in Albany, W.A. - and his doc was quite thorough with his all-round health checks on him.
    Those checks included any body chemical deficiencies that are needed for good health. The Doc found he was Vitamin D deficient. Mate expressed surprise at that fact, and the Doc stated that around 2/3rds of the population in the South of W.A., became Vitamin D deficient during Winter. Mate also suffers from a modest level of psoriasis and eczema, and has done all his life.

    Interesting article below by an American doc, about Vitamin D and dry skin.

    https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/vita...-for-dry-skin/

  13. #42
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    Feb 2006
    Location
    Perth
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    27,756

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    Just be a bit careful about self prescribing Vitamin D.

    At the end of last year blood tests showed that I was mildly Vitamin D deficient. None of my 3 docs picked this up but when I told the GP about it he prescribed Vitamin D tablets. A few months later my Sarcoidosis Specialist found my Ca levels were found to be dangerously elevated and could result in a heart attack so he called me up and told me to come and pick a script for cortisone. A few weeks later when I went to see him I asked about whether the Vitamin D the GP prescribed might have had an effect and he told me YES!, blood tests cannot pick up all sources of Vitamin D in the body and that some inflammatory conditions like the one I have can really screw things around. So I had to stop the vitamin D and the Ca levels then went down. Now every time I have a general blood test the GP wants to put me back on Vitamin D and I have to refer him to the specialists advice.

    I've found I split/cracked fingers is more related to repeated washing of hands ie mainly metalwork than anything seasonal. Recently I started wearing latex gloves if I know things are are going to get grubby and this seems to have cured the problem

  14. #43
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    May 2004
    Location
    Killarney Heights Sydney NSW
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    71
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    67

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    My thumb split on Friday , 1st time this year

  15. #44
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    mackay. qld
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    30

    Default

    I just read this post and it took me back to the late 50's when I worked for my brother who was a concretor in Melbourne. In those days we were a gang of four: two feeding the mixer: one wheeling and one spreading. When the concrete was in we would all get on a trowel. A little different to today's ready mix and helicopters.
    In the winter our fingers would split painfully. Every evening, sitting by the fire, we would rub mutton fat into our hands paying special attention to the splits.
    Apart from the general cursing, the splits were considered part of winter. I seem to remember it giving great relief ( and it made my wife feel a modicum of pity for her hardworking hubby)
    Perhaps it is just a faulty memory, but give it a go. At least it is cheap.
    Bobbo.

  16. #45
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    Feb 2016
    Location
    Canberra
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    5,124

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    Mutton fat 😁

    Not going to find that to easily.

    I can stick with my L'Oreal hand cream 🤣🤣 Look how beautiful mine are! Only three torn cuticles and a bent-back fingernail. 😵😵
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