Heavy Meta/Fume absorption through eyes or skin?

[NMLinda]

I've tried doing searches in this and other forums - maybe I'm not using the right keywords - but is there any information out in the community on the potential for absorbing heavy metals through one's eyes or skin while lampworking?

I don't know if this is or isn't a hazard, but I would appreciate any insight any of you can share, or pointers to good information. I know that a high quality ventilation system is a must, regardless, but I was wondering whether a face shield, in addition to a good respirator, may be important under certain circumstances.

Thanks, all!
Linda

[Mitosis Glass]

I was wondering the same thing Linda, and whether gloves might not be a bad idea.

Certainly masks are essential when working with frits and enamel, but I was wondering about a fume mask for regular torching.

I'd hate to look like I'm entering a Level 4 biohazard site every time I do glass, but oh well.

[butterflyb65]

Not sure about the absorption of metals from touching glass rods. But I can tell you you should be careful of mandrel release clays. Some of them do have toxic properties and can enter through the skin and through any cuts on your hands. I suggest using disposable gloves when cleaning out your beads. The dust from the release can cause resperatory issues and cancer. So I imagine drying your rods in the flame could be slightly toxic too. Proper ventilation is a must. All of the glass distributors in the US should have product information sheets available to there customers bye request. If you are concerned, it's definately worth checking into.

Peace, Love & Beads

Elizabeth

[Kevan]

From what I understand, glass is stable and the metals inside of it remain inside of it. This is why you can drink out of lead crystal. Though people will talk about silicosis and glass dust, silicosis is caused by free silica, not glass. Glass dust is a nuisance hazard in large quantities.

I have never heard about metals being absorbed through the skin in lampworking.

[NMLinda]

Thanks, all, for your responses!

Guess I should have phrased my question more carefully. Kevan, you're right, glass formulated correctly tends to be inert and stable (although there was a post in another forum some time ago about a batch of glass that apparently 'sweated' one of its consituents).

I was more specifically concerned about heavy metals released when melting the glass. There is a great deal of attention focused on breathing the fumes, and rightly so, driving the concerns for carefully designed ventilation systems. I would suspect that, for most glass in rod form, the risk for additional absorption through the eyes and skin is low for most glass colorants if one has a good ventilation system.

That said, I like to silver and gold fume beads, and also enjoy using the heavily silvered glasses so popular now. Everything I've read in these and related forums indicate that much higher amounts of heavy metals are released by these. (Thank you, Elizabeth, for pointing out the handling hazards of bead releases, too - hadn't considered that!)

In the absence of information, I've been wearing a full face shield (in addition to a respirator, my glasses and ventilation system) when I fume, work with heavily silvered glass, or work with enamels/fine frit, so as you mention, FilshBulb, I feel like I'm 'suiting up' for a biohazard area! Hadn't thought of gloves, though. Might be tough to find something thin enough for dexterity without also being flamable. That said, I don't know if what I'm already doing is even necessary.

Can anyone point me to information on safe levels of air-born heavy metals and whether they can be absorbed by the eyes or through the skin? I read Juliett Page's post on "Tests for Heavy Metals In Our Bodies" with interest. I'd like to avoid exposure to the greatest extent possible, and then check with tests.

Thanks!
Linda

[IF-Designs]

Most heavy metal poisoning is going to be through Skin or Inhalation. Specifically in the hot glass industry its mostly due to inhalation of the metals offgassing during working etc. Now if your someone you manufactures their own colors and are dealing with the raw oxide powders and chemicals etc its going to be more probable through skin and inhallation that you would have issues. But for the everyday lampworker its mostly inhallation. the glass I would be most concerned about with this would be the heavilily silvered glass, furnace glass as there is typically a heavy concentration of metals in that, and Borosilicate Boro has a TON of stinky fumes from metals etc when you work with it so ventillation is very very important. The respirator is very good for working with metals and heavily metal ladel glass. I personally wouldnt use gloves as they would become more of a hazard for you working than they would help. They could catch on fire, cause you to drop molten glass etc etc. A very good fine article / gas filter respirator would be good u dont want JUST a particle filter you want something that will catch gases as well. Typically for something to be absorbed through the skin is rare unless your handling mercury or other liquid ladel with dissolved metal particles. if you wash your hands very well before eating / drinking etc you should be fine in that regard.

[NMLinda]

Thank you for your response, also, IF. It's good to have the context that direct contact with heavy metals, such as when making custom furnace glass or handling dissolved or liquid metals, rather than typical flameworking, would be the greater opportunity for skin-absorbtion. I'm not advanced enough to work with my own colorants, but might like to try boro someday, so I was interested in your observations about boro.

I agree that inhalation is the most significant risk and that really, really good ventillation, with a respirator for certain work, is clearly critical. I suppose that if I'm still concerned about eye absorption, a Barley-box/fume hood style ventillation system over my torch with a good face shield would provide the best protection. If I'm reading your post right, I'm guessing that good ventillation will draw enough of the evaporated metals away so that any 'condensation' on the skin would be negligable. True?

Thanks!
Linda

[LyndaJ]

I torch in clothes that get washed after, so that any glass dust doesn't get into the rest of the house. I also wash my hands after so that any dust/residue that's left on them doesn't get onto food that I handle or into my eyes.

An n100 rated mask is good for metal fumes.

[GlassyEyedGirl]

Re: inhalation of fumes/metals.... I have been confused about the ratings on the masks.... are the P100 rated ones for particulates only? If you want the gas/fume coverage, do you need an N100? Do you combine the two in one mask? I have a 3M half-face with the P100 pink filters now.

I have traditionally been VERY sensitive to the fumes and want to avoid breathing anything toxic at all.

[Lorraine Chandler]

I am very sensitive too and I use a full face respirator with P-100 micro filters. That takes care of dust, fumes..all of it.

I also wear kevlar sleeves and I pull them all the way over my fingers and wear long sleeves. I have the Aura-lens shield I look through and it also helps to block radient heat.

If I do not dress like this I can tell the difference with my eyes being very tired and throat gets sore and my skin hurts on my face, hands and arms and my lungs definitely bother me. My skin hurts like a sunburn, If I do not cover up.

Lots of women have said that after a few years torching their face ages much faster. So I am trying to wear spf 80 also.

Then of course we have the proper ventilation.

You get used to it all after a few times and I feel normal when I quit torching. if I forget to put on any piece of protective equipment I know it right away.
Lorraine

[NMLinda]

Thanks for the good points about washing clothes and hands, IF and LindaJ.

Thanks for your observations and experiences as well, Lorraine. Glad to know that I'm not the only one dressing to the 9's, so to speak. Is the face shield you use the shade 5 full face shield? Do you also wear auralens/dydimium glasses underneath? I've seen Kevlar sleeves that appear to be reasonably flexible. Do you find they allow reasonable dexterity? I would imagine, given your sensitivities, that you must have an excellent ventillation system. Does yours have a baffle low enough to also serve as a face shield? Did you and GlassyEyedGirl notice being sensitive right away, or did your sensitivities appear over time? Hope you don't mind all the questions. I'm very interested in your experiences.

Linda

[GlassyEyedGirl]

Linda it took me a while to figure out what was going on. I would get headaches after torching, but not until a day or two later, so it was harder to make the connection. Also, I was beginning to think it was affecting my memory. I was about 4 months into making beads on average about 10 hours a week before I had to admit that it was causing problems. I have not had those problems since I got the respirator and built the "Barley box", but I am worried about the long-term effects of my previous exposure.

Lorraine, where did you get your Kevlar sleeves and your Aura sheild? I just don't think you can be too careful with this hobby, so I am glad to hear all the steps you take to protect yourself. Maybe some people are not as sensitive as we are, but I figure it's better to be safe.

[volkanokaren]

Memory affected hey?!Interestingly enough I have been having the same .I have great ventilation ,take breaks .wear a bandana over my face,dont eat drink or smoke in my studio,,,,but I use ALOT of silver foil, encased and burned off,into ,on to glass.
Im thinking gloves,mask and because hair is so absorbant covering my hair.

Karen
Volkano Exotik

[volkanokaren]

One thing I should add,,I spent 4 months renting studio time at a place before I got my own studio and I used to get major headaches.I dont get them now .Can we say VENTILATION,VENTALATION,
VENTIATION is so important.So is covering up your face.Try the bandana ,your lungs ,head and skin will thank you for it.Ive noticed my bandana is pretty dirty after 4 or5 days in front of the torch.

Karen
Volkano Exotik

[NMLinda]

Wow, Beth, those are serious impacts for what most folks would consider light torching!

Do you now wear your respirator even with the barley box? Also, does your box have a front baffle on it? Most of the designs I've seen posted either don't have them at all, and/or have openings with baffles above the lampworker's head. I'm planning on building a barley box/fume hood for my new studio, and will probably replace the wooden baffle I've seen in some designs with a clear plexiglass or glass one that I can make long enough to serve as a face shield. That said, it would be interesting to know, based on your experience, Lorraine's and Karen's, whether or not it would still be wise to wear a respirator.

Linda

[GlassyEyedGirl]

Yes, I know it sounds unlikely that so few hours on the torch would cause such issues, but my headaches started when I was torching with poor ventilation, and stopped when I installed a better system. Here is a picture of my new setup. The box is pushed up against a window, in which I have mounted an axial fan that goes up to 2200 cfms. I ran this setup by one of the guys that posts often about ventilation issues, and he said the fan was probably overkill, but it does not affect my flame, and I have plenty of makeup air from a large open garage door, so I still use it on its high setting. It makes for chilly torching in the winter, but better than getting headaches! I know it is made of wood, and I need to cover the side walls with something flame retardant. (I already have ceramic tiles on the tabletop.) I would also like to get some kind of clear shield that goes down farther but still leave me enough room to get my arms in.

[GlassyEyedGirl]

And yes, I do still wear the respirator. Could be overkill, but that is a risk I am willing to take

[NMLinda]

Thank you for your response, Beth, and for posting a picture. I'm glad your new venting arrangement and respirator eliminated the headaches! I'm going to hazard a guess, given what I can see of the height of the seat of your chair vs the height of your barley box opening, that your face is probably at least somewhat exposed to the opening as you work. It would be very interesting to hear from you again once you get a lower faceshield in place to find out if you feel you can eliminate the respirator when you do more general lampworking, of if you find you still need to wear it.

Karen, I agree with ventillation!! If your bandana is dirty after only 4-5 days even with good ventillation, it's amazing to think how much is getting out-gassed as we torch! Do you wear your bandana under/over a respirator or by itself?

There must be some way to calculate how much heavy metal/colorant is out-gassed in the flame by a rod of glass (or leaf of silver), tie that back to, say, NIH standards for how many parts per million are safe for that metal or oxide, and then compare that to our ventillation system's draw capacity to see if we're as protected as we need to be, or if the answer becomes impractical and respirator/ventillation combinations make more sense.

Has anyone done such a calculation?

Linda

[GlassyEyedGirl]

Linda, here are some articles about measurements that have been done. If there is anything else out there, I am not familiar with it, but would love to read more if someone wants to chime in with any suggestions.

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hhe/reports...-0139-2769.pdf
http://www.isgb.org/education/nox.shtml
http://www.isgb.org/info/safety/uploads/swsafety.pdf

Hope that helps!

[volkanokaren]

Linda,I wear my bandana by itself right now.I have noticed my skin is not nearly as dehydrated as when I did not wear it and my face not dirty after using a white facecloth.

Karen
Volkano Exotik

[NMLinda]

Thank you, Beth, I appreciate the links. They should probably be in a sticky where they can be easily found by anyone.

Linda

[cadia]

Thanks for bringing up this topic, some issues I hadn't thought of or known of and others that I may have gotten too "comfortable with". I have noticed my face not being nearly as dry now that I use a bench shield. before I could feel the heat on my face. I also use moisturizer before torching. I may now submit to the respirator more often

[Mitosis Glass]

I am heading out in the next couple of days to buy a full face shield with those screw-on filters, and I was wondering whether that would be overkill. I see now that I wouldn't be alone in wearing one.

Kevlar sleeves sound interesting also. I'll look for those as well.

[NMLinda]

You're most welcome, Cadia! Karen's experiences using her bandana confirmed some of my own suspicions - part of why I posted my original questions.

I was also interested in your comment about feeling heat. For the benefit of all, and although it's slightly off my original topic, I'd like to share something I learned from Lorraine in a PM (Lorraine, I hope you don't mind!). Lorraine mentions in one of her posts, below, that she uses SPF 80 suntan lotion. She elaborated for me later that she noticed a LOT of radiation being produced by her HH and warned me about the potential risk of skin cancer from this exposure. Although I work on a minor, which produces less radiation, I've noticed that my face, in particular, turns pink after a few hours at the torch. Being a bit slow(!) I didn't make the obvious connection to sun-burnlike exposure (which can lead to skin cancer...) risk until her note (thank you, Lorraine!!). Beyond moisturizer, I plan on using high SPF suntan lotion, like Lorraine, every time I torch.

From what I've learned here, it appears that superb ventilation, a respirator, a faceshield of some kind, arm protection and high SPF suntan lotion are smart things things to incorporate.

Linda

[FairyVerre]

How do you detect or determine the radiation ? Do you have a meter ? What about if you are outside - most of you are inside, so I think I am ok with just didys and a mouth/nose mask. But this is interesting cuz sometimes I get "cranky" for a few hours after torching.... hmmmm ? And I am bad sometimes I do not use either glasses or mask - I guess that will stop ! But actually I have noticed the bead release situation it can get very noticeable since I am a german shepard according to my hubby. I notice it more with KRAG than with fusion tho, so I am sticking with fusion from now on. Thanks for everybody's imput it is very informative!

[Mitosis Glass]

Hi FairyVerre,

At the absolute least, you must have didy glasses. There is infrared light produced during torching which is not visible to the naked eye, but it will cause eye damage down the road. I know they're not fun to wear but do wear them all the time.

Your comment about bead release is interesting. I've only used Fusion so I wasn't aware that other bead releases can cause problems and/or odors. I'll stick with Fusion then!

[NMLinda]

Good questions, FairyVerre!

The first link Beth posted a few response back in this thread is a report that NIOSH published at the request of some ISGB folks for their Corning New Yourk Gathering ('98 I believe). They measured quite a number of things, including UV and IR radiation. They aren't specific about the sensors they used, but do state that they put them on the lampworkers' faces for their some fo their measurements. I'm sure the instruments they used are quite specialized and probably not so easy to find if one wanted to do one's own testing. I don't own any, myself - I need to rely on measurements such as theirs and other professional organizations.

The sense I get reading their report, is that the risk, setting the specific sodium flare radiation aside for the moment, is about that of laying outside for a suntan (my interpretation, only!!). Since this was a 1-2 day test with only a few people being assessed during the demonstrations, and only a small group of people answered the health questionaire, there's no statistical data provided on the range of individual sensitivities. The suntan analogy might be good here: some people burn right away at exposures other people can tolerate with little impact, and, over time, excessive exposure/sunburns can lead to skin cancer in susceptible people.

Back to sodium flare radiation: if I were you, I would not do a moment's more of lampworking until getting at least didy's. After doing my own reading on the impacts of the sodium flare radiation band on eye health, I NEVER lampwork without them! I believe some of the early books on beadmaking published by Brian Kerkleviet and Bandhu Scott Durham have information on the specifics, such as cataract formation, conjuncitivitis, glaucoma, etc. Mike Aurelius and others have posted updated information since then. I chose to upgrade to AUR92's(TM) as a result of the data they posted and the resulting (healthy) discussions.

Even though you are lampworking outside, it sounds like you are being exposed to combustion products from the fuel your torch is burning, at a minimum. I too have found that bead releases (I've tried all of them) all seem to outgass something. Not a fault or flaw at all, just necessary the chemistry of their makeup. If it's a still day, or the breezes are blowing towards your face, I'm not surprised you're feeling the effects. As you note, a respirator, at a minimum, would be a good idea. As folks have recommended here and in other posts, a P100 or N100 would be in your best interest. I suspect you'll also likely want some way to pull the fumes from your torch away from you, and some way to control how ambient breezes come toward you so that you don't defeat any fans you might put behind you as you work.

I work inside, so I don't know much about the best ways to work outside. Hopefully some of the folks who work outside will chime in with their experiences and recommendations.

Linda

[GlassyEyedGirl]

Definitely never torch without glasses... Sodium flare long-term effects are reason enough, but one bit of hot shocky glass hits your eye, and your cornea would be toast!

I am in the eye care business, so I had to chime in

[margaret]

here is something www.theblastshield.com I have been thinking about to protect from heat from the torch- and to help deflect fumes toward the ventilation fan. I also have had trouble with silver and silver glass if my ventilation isn't just right. any thoughts or does anyone have one? re bead release- I try to keep it wet when cleaning beads, and when they have come out of the kiln before I clean them I keep them in a jar of water. re being really cold in the studio: I have a heat wrap thing that I put around my back under my sweater- works great!

[FairyVerre]

ooops... I did forget to mention, I have a 20 in fan that blows past my face so it blows onto the flame and also gives me fresh air. Hopefully it takes bad junk away from me in front of flame and replaces it. That does help alot ~ thanks everyone for such a great thread !