Thread: Poll on Silky Oak allergy

I agree with Dave on this....

You have to be careful with allergies & allergic reactions.

I am allergic to lots of things but thankfully none of them are life threatening to me.

Some members of my family are allergic to seafood & prawns in particular.
They just make me feel like I am seasick or carsick.
My dad gets a rash & swells up.
One of my brothers ends up in hospital unable to breath.
More than 90% of our family members have no problems at all.

I suspect that you will find similar results with SO.

If a substance is known to cause a severe allergic reaction in some people, it should be considered dangerous.

There is a restaurant in Cairns who use prawn/shrimp paste/sauce ( see the list of other names for it below.)
They do NOT have an allergic warning on their menu but every single dish has it unless you ask for it to be left out.

Belacan, belachan or blachang
Terasi, trassi or terasie
Bagoong alamang or bagoong aramang
mắm ruốc, mắm tép and mắm tôm
Kapi
Ngapi yay
Hom ha
Hae ko
Haam ha or ha jeung
Petis udang

No reaction to Southern Silky Oak (Grevillea robusta). After working in a joinery factory, using Northern Silky Oak (Cardwellius Sublimus), I had had no reaction until recently. Now a splinter will fester within 3 hours, dust seems to be no problem though with either species.

Jim

I am fine with Silky oak, but my good friend L..... is definitely allergic.
He comes out in a rash from even contact with the sawdust - even if it is old and has been lying around for a while.
(Mackay Cedar, on the other hand, absolutely hates me.)

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

There is a restaurant in Cairns who use prawn/shrimp paste/sauce ( see the list of other names for it below.)
They do NOT have an allergic warning on their menu but every single dish has it unless you ask for it to be left out.

Belacan, belachan or blachang
Terasi, trassi or terasie
Bagoong alamang or bagoong aramang
mắm ruốc, mắm tép and mắm tôm
Kapi
Ngapi yay
Hom ha
Hae ko
Haam ha or ha jeung
Petis udang

I love it, the shrimp paste that is, but SWMBO calls it "extract of used nappy"

One of the boys at the local sawmill has to leave the site when they're milling silky oak, machine in use is a Woodmiser connected directly to an extractor and with water on the blade so dust is usually minimal but he still blows up like Michellan man like Dave does.

They have even had customers in the shop getting reactions after handling the raw timber.

Originally Posted by BobL

By that do you mean the pieces have been sealed with some sort of finish?

The only piece I ever turned out of SO has been finished in shellawax and it poses no problems to me at all now.

Oh, and one thing I learnt about allergies (I have always had no trouble with them until recently - Silky Oak and the adhesive on bandaid/elastoplast... go figure ) is that they are sort of cumulative. Each reaction is usually worse than the last. Turning that bowl was a bit ordinary, but later contact was much worse. I do actually think the sap was worse than the dust, but I'm not going back to test it. Nothing life threatening, just damned unpleasant.

Cheers,
Dave

I have had no problems with the dry stuff, and never got to try any green SO. I wonder if it is like the Rosewoods, where, "it isn't a matter of 'if' you are allergic to it. It is a matter of when you become allergic to it." Some woods, constant exposure will cause an allergic reaction eventually.

robo hippy

Originally Posted by Ozkaban

The only piece I ever turned out of SO has been finished in shellawax and it poses no problems to me at all now.

Oh, and one thing I learnt about allergies (I have always had no trouble with them until recently - Silky Oak and the adhesive on bandaid/elastoplast... go figure ) is that they are sort of cumulative. Each reaction is usually worse than the last.

That's not the case for all allergies. One of my BILs was badly allergic to eggs as a kid but grew out of it after about 20 years. The way he found out was he had travel inoculations and when he went back to get his second set of shots he told the nurse that he suffered mild reactions similar to his egg allergy. They immediately ceased the injections and had him tested again for egg allergy but it turned out he had almost grown out of it. The same BIL is a vet and he was allergic to cats and dogs but he took a desensitization course of something or other so he could be around them but then ended up working with viruses.

My son goes into anaphylactic shock from ingesting bananas. The first time this happened was when he was 17 and before that he must have eaten tons of bananas. The second time it happened he was #2 priority on the triage list at Royal Perth (after a serious road accident victim) emergency. have suggested to him multiple times that he carry an epi pen around because like nuts one never knows what has been near a banana.

I lost my sense of smell for 6 weeks in 2002 after working outside on a large project with MDF. I have not noticed any greater sensitivity to it since then, in fact I think I may be desensitized to it - or maybe my new DC is just doing it's job

There are a number of stories about folk building up a sensitivity to substances over time. With me it's been redgum dust which now causes the sinuses to 'clamp down'. Also any wood dust stirred up from the carpet square in front of the work bench is likely to cause sneezing.

SO is listed on some websites on toxic wood as something to watch out for; there are a range of other species too.

I haven't turned SO a lot but it make me sneaze a bit; nothing a mask doesn't fix.

Originally Posted by AlexS

No allergy myself, but the year before mine at Sturt, they had to bar SO from the workshop as one student had a severe skin rash from it.
Would be interested to know if there's a difference in reaction between southern (Grevillea robusta) and northern (Cardwellia sublimis).

+1 for this. I entered "allergic" , as I have had strong reactions to sap and dust........ but this was for grevilliea.

I have built a full kitchen, and a guitar from cardwellia, with absolutely no problems.

I am fine with Silky oak, but my good friend L..... is definitely allergic.
He comes out in a rash from even contact with the sawdust - even if it is old and has been lying around for a while.
(Mackay Cedar, on the other hand, absolutely hates me.)

another +1 for Mackay cedar.

Only time I used it, I had nausea, headaches, and the following day, an explosive nosebleed.

Not nice

regards