LDosser wrote:

: My take on turning spalted wood is to do it only when wearing a respirator.
: You can sometimes get allergic reactions with 'plain' woods - such as the
: rosewood family - but the spalting in spalted wood is caused by Fungi and
: not something you want to risk getting into your respiratory tract.

That's the common wisdom in woodturning and woodworking. But I did a
fairly exhautive search about two years ago -- everything from websites to
medical journals -- and turned up essentially no evidence that this is the
case. There was an article in the British journal Woodturning by two
turners who were also medical doctors, and they argued that the fungal
spores are not any more worrisome than any other sort of dust.

I don't mean to discount the common wisdom (which often turns out to be
correct!), but I'd like to see more research into the matter -- does
anyone have any sources to contradict mine?

-- Andy Barss