Thread: Camphor in Schools?

Should be no problem.I know Mal sells camphor coffee table sets to schools
Greg

I dont see why it couldnt be allowed to be used in schools, the worst part about it is when the smell is really strong when sanding and kids might winge.

Does anybody know of a government agency I could contact for some written information. I need written proof and not just 'he said it will be alright'.

Thanks Again Damien.

Damien,

Try the Department of Education. You could get passed around a bit but usually there is someone there that will put you on to the right person.

G'day.
We give timber to all the high schools around the Clarence Valley and they love it.

Mostly Aussie hardwoods. But we have supplied heaps of Camphor Laurel that is Kiln dried and dressed.

Most of what we give them has no commercial value, but I was stunned to see what they can make out of our waste wood.
Talk to the head of the manual arts dept at the schools.

The Edu Dept is better left in the dark. Or they will over think the issue and turn it into a PC wankfest.

Originally Posted by glock40sw

.....The Edu Dept is better left in the dark. Or they will over think the issue and turn it into a PC wankfest.

Much as I sympathise with that feeling Trevor, the question has been raised, so an answer has to be given. But good luck getting reliable information! There is a lot of hype, but few verifiable facts on this topic.

Camphor itself is reasonably toxic, the adult lethal dose being in the range of 50-500mg/kg, or 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the stuff for an average person, but I can't find any figures on actual camphor content of dry wood so we can't calculate how much little Johnny needs to ingest to do himself harm. I suspect he would need to be pretty busy chewing, for a very long time...

On the internet, there are a couple of somewhat hysterical pages about how nasty the wood is, & how many mill workers have been incapacitated by it, but I have some doubts about the reliability of these reports. I suspect more mills closed in the Northern Rivers because they weren't commercially viable than due to their workers going down with camphor intoxication.... On the other hand, camphor is neurotoxic, so constant, heavy exposure to fumes MIGHT cause cumulative damage (perhaps!).

It can certainly cause allergic skin & respiratory problems in some individuals - but then just about every wood known will find someone, somewhere, who develops an allergy to it. There are no reliable figures that I can find on whether C. camphorum falls into a specially high category in that respect, either. Anecdotally, it probably does seem to bother more people than average, but without real data, that's just hearsay....

If the school is worried about any legal implications, it's probably best to bypass it & use something else - if someone gets sick from anything, it'll get the blame. Let the kids go back to playing computer games & scoffing fizzy drinks - much healthier pastimes () & send any nice, spare Camphor wood up to me......

Cheers,

G'day.
We built a new amenities block for the staff in the drymill. The entire building is lined with Camphor 80x12 VJ lining boads.
It looks stunning and the smell was strong at the start, but 3 months later you couldn't smell it. But each January when we come back from a 3 week closedown, you can smell it again.

Years ago we machined some timber imported from Fiji. All my blokes had snot running out of them and eyes stinging and shortness of breath. Even the staff of Servo next door to the mill were complaining of having Olympic size snot fests.