"Lars Stole" wrote in message
news:2004123017470775249%larsstole@gsbuchicagoedu. ..
I am an allergy and asthma sufferer who has been woodworking for about
a year now. Poor choice of hobbies I know, but now that I am hooked
there is little that I can do about it.

I have spent considerable effort putting in dust collection and I
usually wear a high-quality dust mask when doing any work that kicks up
sawdust. That said, inevitably some amount of material ends up
getting through and causing some irritation for me. I find that red
oak is somewhat worse than mahogany or cherry, but nothing I have
experienced to date is as bad as MDF. I plan to eventually build some
wine racking and I understand that redwood generates even worse (i.e.,
more toxic) forms of dust than MDF, so I will probably go with mahogany.

Here's the general question: what are your experiences with different
wood species and the amount of irritation their dust cause? Is their a
web site that has this sort of information? (I seem to recall a few
months ago that someone was having problems with an exotic wood and was
directed to a website to check on its degree of toxicity.)

Lars


There's dust as an irritant and oils or other extractives as
sensitizers/allergens, so your strategy has to be control of _both_ when
generating dust, and the second after the dust settles. That means filtered
and charcoal if you want one mask to do all.

Only you know your circumstances, though the toxic wood articles (everything
is toxic according to a lawyer) can be a guide as to when you might be able
to go dust control only and cut down on the weight. Generally speaking,
rain forest stuff has evolved more efficient insecticide/fungicides than
temperate forest stuff, because it's vulnerable almost year-round.