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Re: Parts Washer Warning

To: shop-talk@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Re: Parts Washer Warning
From: Roger Gibbs <rgibbs@pacbell.net>
Date: Sat, 04 Apr 1998 14:03:22 +0000
There was an interesting thread on the rec.crafts.metalworking ng a few months 
back 
discussing the hazards of metal poisoning. The discussions included the effects 
of 
these metals on the human body, the permanence  of these metals (ie: lead. 
mercury 
do not pass out of the body, zinc does), and the mechanisms by which these 
metals 
can be introduced into our bodies.  For example, holding a galvanized pipe is 
not a 
hazard but welding one releases copious amounts of zinc fumes which are easily 
inhaled .  Lead in its elemental form (lead sheet for instance) was discussed 
as 
pretty safe, but berating lead fumes, or lead dust, or eating/ingesting lead 
based 
paint or lead dust is not good. 

So it is not : "is lead good or bad?" or "is lead safe or deadly ?" (or zinc, 
or 
cadmium, or mercury, or asbestos, etc.) because the answers are both yes and 
no.  
It all depends on many different factors.

The point of all of this is that information on the true hazards of the things 
that 
we come into contact with is a good thing.  I think that the concern expressed 
about using old oil filters is a worthwhile "heads up".  Some of the ways that 
harmful substances enter our bodies is by absorption through the skin; and 
introducing a potentially harmful material into a solvent which comes in 
contact 
with my skin is something that I would like to avoid.  We all choose our risks, 
the 
more information that we have the better we are able to choose.

-Roger
..who is also still kicking after a lifetime of doing some pretty silly (but 
usually interesting) things in his life but is always looking to take 
reasonable 
precautions so that I can continue to do fun things for decades and decades to 
come.

Bob Hamilton wrote:
> 
> Friends,
> 
>         I wonder how we all survived this lead scare stuff when it was only 
>in the
> '70's
> that toothpaste still came in LEAD tubes and dentists used to give us
> liquid murcury to
> take home and play with on the kitchen table!
> 
> Later,
> Bob
> (60+ and still kicking!)

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