Steve and I have been having a conversation about auto paint and Steve
suggested others might be interested. I agree, so here it is.
Please be aware that although I have some experience related to subject, I
am not a professional body and paint man, so the material below is not by
any means exhaustive. The main priciples do hold true: do your homework on
both the materials and equipment and equip yourself knowledgably and
correctly or leave it to a pro. Auto paints keep getting more complex and
more toxic as well as more durable.
Jim Knight
-----Original Message-----
From: Knight, James
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 2:47 PM
To: 'steve bridge'
Subject: RE: urethane paint
Steve:
Not necessarily. Industrial personal respirators are designed to be fitted
with a number of different particulate filters for either dusts, mists, or
fumes (which is not at all the same thing as vapors, even though many laymen
use "fume" and "vapor" interchangeably). These three types of filters each
come in three different degrees of filtration efficiency. They also can be
fitted with any number of cartridges that contain substances to absorb from
the air as it passes through specific chemical classes of vapors. For
instance, there is a different cartridge for acid vapors than for organic
vapors. To spray paint, you must be protected from fine mists, which can
induce chemical pneumonia among other things, and the vapors emmanating from
the solvents in the paint. Auto paints are very complex, and as I mentioned
earlier, some contain substances for which there is no protection except an
air supplied respirator. (minimum $600 to get set up) You must know
specifically what is in the product Get MSDS from vendor, he is required by
law to provide if it is requested but has no obligation to offer it to you
if you don't ask. MSDS will usually recommend appropriate respiratory
protection. It will at least tell you what specific hazards to guard
against and then you can do some homework on the web with 3M and other
companies that do personal protective equipment to find out specifically
what equipment you need to protect yourself. If your vendor is
uncooperative, find another vendor. If there isn't another one handy, get
on the web, there are several free MSDS data bases you can search. If I were
you, I would not be painting cars again until you have the information
necessary to identify the specific hazards and acquire the indicated
protective equipment.
I would guess that the odds that an old gas mask is still effective, even
against the substances it was designed to protect against, are small. If
you use a mask that does not exclude the toxic substances, you may be worse
off than with no mask at all. This situation tends to produce a higher
concentration of vapors than you would inhale from your general work
environment, much as kids put model glue or oven cleaner or even gasoline in
a bag in order to produce a more concentrated air/vapor mix before inhaling.
This stuff can really hurt you, so educate yourself and do it right or hire
it done.
Jim Knight
-----Original Message-----
From: steve bridge [mailto:slbridge@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 2:10 PM
To: James.Knight@purchase.edu
Subject: RE: urethane paint
Hi Jim,
It's an Israeli gas mask. I figured: If it can filter nerve gas,
it must filter paint gasses. Steve
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