Eeeek! I'm Green!

Daniel Koster

Daniel Koster

www.kosterknives.com
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 18, 2001
Messages
20,978
Just finished an hour of sanding down some Arizona Desert Ironwood....and now my skin is green....:eek:


Actually, I'm not that surprised....this has happened everytime I have been covered in ironwood dust....:rolleyes:


But it's still rather intriguing......doesn't matter how much I scrub....my arms are still a nice grey-green....:barf:

Usually goes away by morning....


Anybody else? Or am I just special? :p
 
ROTFLM Butt Off !! I hit the board while coming in from the shop for a quick bite to eat and get a good laugh too. :D What more could a guy ask for on break time .
 
Could it be that you turned green from the disgustingly nausiating smell of sanding Ironwood ?
:D
 
I dunno guys....no itching - no burning, nothing. Just turns my skin a grey-green color. Funniest part is that it finds its way into the creases in my palms and turns them green, but not the rest of my hand.....:confused:

I wish I was making this up....I'm not. :(

It's like somebody spilled green KoolAid on my skin....it's not neon green...but very pukey green colored....tried taking a pic - doesn't really show it.


On the subject of burn....I made the mistake last week of thinking I could just do a little sanding at the disc sander (truing up a block) without my respirator mask....I caught a thick cloud of it right up my nose.....Holy Crap!! Felt like somebody had crammed hot embers up my nose.
 
Daniel Koster said:
On the subject of burn....I made the mistake last week of thinking I could just do a little sanding at the disc sander (truing up a block) without my respirator mask....I caught a thick cloud of it right up my nose.....Holy Crap!! Felt like somebody had crammed hot embers up my nose.
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Are you going to turn into Desert Thing, now? Like Swamp Thing, except you are part Ironwood tree now. :rolleyes:

I can see it now...

Years from now, Dan grows roots and coyotes pee on his trunk. :p :D
 
I don't know why your skin would turn green with something like this, but logic says that something is being absorbed into your skin from the wood. Then from your skin into your bloodstream, where your liver has to process it, then out #1 or #2 route. Logic would also say that the extra load on your liver and gastrointestinal/genitourinary tract is probably not a good thing, either.

I may be wrong and maybe the wood reacts with something in your skin and produces a totally benign, no-big-deal discoloration that will never, ever have an effect on your system, but I tend to look at unknowns from the point of view that they should be handled as conservatively as possible until otherwise advised. So, obviously respirator, and if I were you, long sleeves, gloves, facemask, probably cover up as much skin as possible when using that wood.
 
I've always heard the desert ironwood has a natural fugaside in it. I hope you've been wearing a mask. It might be wise to wear a long sleve shirt also.
 
Raymond Richard said:
I've always heard the desert ironwood has a natural fugaside in it. I hope you've been wearing a mask. It might be wise to wear a long sleve shirt also.
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Crazy aint it how different stuff affects different folks differently? I am sick as a dog when I get allergies to fungus and mold spores. Funny you should mention the ironwood thing. It is one wood that rarely bothers me at all - smell, dust, anything. Now if a saw a pine board on the table saw, I am sneezing and wheezing. Weird, huh? :)
 
Yep - I hear ya, Jeff. Thankfully, I have no known allergies.

Long sleeves in Arkansas, working outside in the summertime? I'd die of heat-exhaustion long before my liver gave out....:rolleyes:

The good news is that I rarely work with Ironwood, and that I keep a fan blowing over me and my grinder (mostly for cooling purposes, but it does cut down on dust build-up. I've been able to grind blades with no "black boogers" this way (no mask) - but I always wear a mask when doing heavy stock removal on potentially toxic woods.

As usual, the green is gone this morning...
 
I used to have a patient who periodically would turn yellow. Had every medical test known to mankind done and they couldn't find anything wrong with him, so they opened up their Merck Manual and picked some obscure "genetic problem" to blame it on. He came in to see me for an unrelated problem and I actually sat down with him and asked him some questions, chatted, got to know him, which is a big part of my first visit. Turns out he is on the cleaning crew at a local meat plant. Between shifts he rolls in with high temp chemicals fired out of hoses. According to him, "it really burns my eyes, it's hard to breathe, etc." I said "Really? What kind of respirator are you wearing?" He looks at me like I just said something in Manchurian. I repeated my question and he said "Respi-what?" I said, "You know, like a mask you wear to filter chemicals and stuff.." He said, "No, uh uh." I asked about eye and nose protection.. Nope, nothing. Those little paper masks at least?! Nope. What about gloves? Yeah, we are supposed to wear gloves, but one of the chemicals we use melts them. One of the guys found out "it doesn't hurt your skin at all" so we all stopped wearing our gloves because the chemicals were melting them.

So, I called his MD and asked his if he was aware that this guy was working around nasty chemicals without the use of any protection whatsoever. I think I heard crickets on the other line for a few minutes, then he said "No, we never really discusssed that." Evidently someone changed something because he stopped turning yellow, but I'll bet he's going to pay for this liver damage big time in another 10-15 years. Just my 2 cents.

You don't turn yellow, do you? :D
 
Daniel Koster said:
I keep a fan blowing over me and my grinder (mostly for cooling purposes, but it does cut down on dust build-up. I've been able to grind blades with no "black boogers" this way (no mask)
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This is becoming a huge issue for me as well - the ventilation thing. I know some folks do just that very sort of thing, you know, blowing it all away from you. I have been considering some kind of negative-pressure booth with all the dusts and fumes being sucked to the outside. I know you are working outside right now, but up here in the north we still have to consider the year-round aspect of grinding.

Any ideas/thoughts?
 
"It's not easy, being green...." - Kermit the frog


:D



My youngest son was quite yellow a few months back. Turns out, Mama was feeding him too many mashed carrots....:rolleyes:.....took out the carrots, bye-bye yellow.

You are what you eat. :D



The green I'm getting is from direct skin contact from the ironwood dust. And only when I'm really kicking up a bunch. The dust is a nice yellow/goldenrod, by the way. And my skin is....well, think of a shrimp....that's me. Now toss it in a pot of boiling water....that's me with sun-exposure. :D :p
 
Higgy - in the wintertime (it does get cold here for a few months)...I use a little clip-on fan that blows right across the bottom of the platen and out the garage door. Doesn't get all the dust, but does cut it at least in half (and doesn't freeze my fingers....but I use gloves anyway, so....)
 
Didn't mean to hijack this post, Dan, but the whole big grinding and ventilation debate does sort of proxy (and parlay) to it, yes? :)

I been thinking of some kind of booth to put all my grinders and sand blasters in. Trouble is, that's a heck of a lot of room needed. May as well build a whole new shop ferchrissakes. :grumpy: Ideally a feller has to get himself a shop with a hot-room, a dust-room, and an assembly-and everthang-else-room. :)
 
On a related note, lately I've noticed an orange tint on my wiener. Can't explain it either. My routine hasn't changed at all... Get up, shower, go to work, go home, eat cheetos & watch porn... :confused:
 
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