Learning the importance of wearing dust masks the hard way

[jdplast]

Did a bit of mono yesterday and it was a bit windy in the alleyway where the gable was so I had quite a bit of rub off and spilt render etc blowing around me all day getting in my eyes and obviously being breathed in, as many of us do I just got on with it.

Finished the job, had no feelings of illness etc but not a mile down the road I started coughing quite badly and couldn't breathe too well, then one of my eyes swelled up and closed completely.

the lad drove me to the hospital and when assessed they said my lungs were functioning worse than a heavy smoker (I don't smoke) and my oxygen saturation was low, plus my pulse was erratic and my heart rate raised, I was rushed straight through to re-suss.

Luckily after six hours of treatment I was able to come home but I feel really rough and my eye is still swollen.

The cause was my lungs being clogged up by render and chemical poisoning from the amount of render i'd inhaled over the day.

like a lot of people I have masks in the van but more just to show I've got them if asked by anyone of authority but I think i've just learned the hard way that they are important and I will be wearing one in future.

Rather wear a mask than finish a days graft on a Saturday in A+E (they don't even have a bar)

And to top it off a smack head in the next bed nicked my phone while I was asleep (I took it back)
and to think all of this could have been saved by wearing a mask, masks are the future for me....I recommend it to everyone else too

 

[Rigsby]

Jdplast, I think it was Malc on here who said recently that mono gives his son headaches. My other spread had a sore nose after breathing mono dust in.

As for me I have respitary problems. A slight cough since 2002. Once only in winter but now all year round. I have had tests and x rays. But everything comes up as ok. The doctor has put it down to 43 years of breathing plaster / cement dust in and it has scarred my lung tissue and tracts.

Well these last 25 years I have always wore a mask but wind back to the 70's the masks we take for granted was not available. I have mixed many a ton of gypsum in a cloud of gypsum dust. But if I had to pull a ceiling down I would take my tee shirt off and cover my mouth. But this back then was frowned upon and was for pufta's. Well I am still here. Where was H&S back then?

Look after your lungs, wear a mask. And goggles, save your eyes!

 

[Rossi46]

Sound advice! I spend a small fortune on masks. Got to be the right ones too! None of those cheap crappy paper ones. Although a nasty experience it's sort of done you a favour in the long run. @johniosaif will tell you the effects of years of breathing in dust and whatever else is floating in the air in our game.

 

[Rigsby]

I bought some off R&J what at the time was on offer. Good paper ones with a vent at about 20p each. But bloody hell 4 boxes of em! There must be 500 of them to get through.

But at 20p a throw there is no excuse not to wear them.

 

[Rossi46]

I was fitting some 120mm insulation this week and haven't done it for a while. Forgot how harsh and shitty that stuff is when it's cut up. Hangs in the air for ages and attacks the throat when you haven't got a mask on!

Ive said it before but the fumes from micro are harsh aswell! Easier outside but applying that stuff inside is definitely killing brain cells and makes me feel sick!

 

[Rossi46]

I bought some off R&J what at the time was on offer. Good paper ones with a vent at about 20p each. But bloody hell 4 boxes of em! There must be 500 of them to get through.

But at 20p a throw there is no excuse not to wear them.

Got to be FFP3 or better John. For the particle sizes we deal with.

 

[jdplast]

never felt any effects from using mono or any other plasterers etc but I have thought to myself on a few occasions that we may well find out that this new (ish) render we are using has serious long term effects on our lungs, everyone thought asbestos was safe back in the day, only found out too late for the people using it back in the day about the serious consequences of using it.
I think having no noticeable effects when using a product breeds a certain contempt, just because we can't feel any damage being done doesn't mean its safe, i'll be keeping a mask on in future.

 

[johniosaif]

5000 or so die each year from dust, asthmatics are in the hundreds of thousands, builders ,tradesmen are dying ..

 

[Wezly]

I read somewhere sometime ago that over 40,000 people had died from asbestosis as a direct result of the the collapse of the twin towers, madness!

 

[Rigsby]

Its not just mixing mono but scraping back as well causes dust.

 

[BigK]

Last time I was scraping back was a few years ago, there was a whirlwind blowing around the gable, I went and bought a pair of tights, me and my mate with a leg each of 'American tan' over our heads,
Saved us that day but we got some queer looks!!

 

[Rossi46]

Last time I was scraping back was a few years ago, there was a whirlwind blowing around the gable, I went and bought a pair of tights, me and my mate with a leg each of 'American tan' over our heads,
Saved us that day but we got some queer looks!!

American tan! My favourite!

 

[owls]

Last time I was scraping back was a few years ago, there was a whirlwind blowing around the gable, I went and bought a pair of tights, me and my mate with a leg each of 'American tan' over our heads,
Saved us that day but we got some queer looks!!

It's a good job you didn't call in the post office on the way home.

 

[owls]

5000 or so die each year from dust, asthmatics are in the hundreds of thousands, builders ,tradesmen are dying ..

On that upbeat note.... Back to work tomorrow.

 

[leebo02]

I read somewhere sometime ago that over 40,000 people had died from asbestosis as a direct result of the the collapse of the twin towers, madness!

bloody hell thats shocking, i just had to google that, there was 2,000 tons of pulverized asbestos floating in the air for weeks afterwards and they recon it will 20 to 40 years after 9/11 that most people will die from the asbestos exposure just imagine the final figure

 

[Wezly]

bloody hell thats shocking, i just had to google that, there was 2,000 tons of pulverized asbestos floating in the air for weeks afterwards and they recon it will 20 to 40 years after 9/11 that most people will die from the asbestos exposure just imagine the final figure

Crazy, the few thousand deaths on the day was just the tip of the iceburg!

 

[Loren]

I haven't researched the twin towers but I think they were built in 1976. Back then they were spraying the steel girders with a product called mono coat. Did bunch of it myself. At that time it had around 5% asbestos in it. Ten years earlier the asbestos percentage would have been a lot higher, my Dad pretty much died of asbestosis, he used to spray it back in the 1950's - early 1960's. Real men didn't wear masks back then (dumbasses). When I was working for other people they balked at having to supply even the cheap masks. Since working for myself (26 yrs. now) I've always got a 3M double cartridge mask in my tool bucket and it feels just like a part of me when I'm wearing it. The only time I really messed with my lungs was when I acid washed a concrete stair way before prepping it for a re-coat job, later that day I broke out in hives all over my body had to go to the emergency room, they gave me heavy doses of antihistamine, guess that worked.

 

[Danny]

That knauf sound insulation gave me desperate nosebleeds when o was laying that in our place....

I try and where a maslow where I can and I have been spraying a lot of 2k paint and bought a tip top mask for that as it has cyanide in it or something...

The plaster g industry is a dusty shirty environment. .. why do we do it to ourselves?