Hazardous Materials on the workbench

Anything with touluene in it might likely have been the cause, but one would also have to have or have developed a reaction to toluene (or any of the other chemicals they use) for something that catastrophic to occur. I myself used to wash raw aluminum parts in straight toluene up to my elbows and have never had any issues - it mostly depends on your skin type in combination with the chemical. Getting any chemical in an already open wound or cut might also have been a factor - really don't have enough information here...

OTOH - some people that make their own photo etch may have nitric acid...er...on hand...I used to have some chemically pure nitric acid around back when I was etching jewelry. If you don't know what you're doing with something like that, yeah - you can hurt yourself.

I have heard of many more problems with flying models, including the somewhat dangerous fuels some modelers use.

Note that the infection normally indicates an organic material- a bug- is involved, that is seperate from the trauma that can allow entry into the body. A knife cut can definitely get infected. I have had this happen several times. Any substance that opens a wound can lead to an infection, so many materials can do this. If (especially in dry winter weather) you peel off a bit of CA from the skin, and open a wound, even a small one, it COULD get infected if one is not careful how the wound is later exposed to bugs. This is not really the fault of the CA, though. So while any trauma can lead to an infection, normal care in washing, using band-aids on cuts, etc. should prevent normal infections. I certainly do not let knowledge of rare cases inhibit my enjoyment of modeling.

BTW, I have also heard of allergies to many of the substances we use in modeling.

There's many dangers people don't realize - Just using normal paints in an airbrush at too high a pressure - you can inject the paint to under the skin and do some really bad damage.

I know people who've developed allergies to toluene. I don't think you can blame this one on modeling though. This sounds more like a nasty infection.

I once contracted an antibiotic resistant infection from spider bites so the requisite bacteria are out in the wild. Some of them will happily eat the flesh right off our bones.

Somehow, I don't see Oprah correctly connecting cause with effect on a routine basis.

Cheers, Dave Ambrose Who, after almost 20 years, is resuming work on the #4 Kodak Chevy. :-)

Dave Ambrose said the following on 28/03/2009 16:30:

Last year we had a report of some guy in the UK dropping dead from a soil-borne virus whilst doing some gardening!

"Like I said! STAY INDOORS,PEOPLE!"

After 50 plus years of modeling everything from stick and paper, solid model balsa and bass wood kits, plastic and many resin kits I have probably ingested (by mouth or inhaling) enough glue, paint ,thinner, fumes and other assorted model stuff to build,sand and paint a hundred models....and I'm still here. It's funny that when we were ignorant of these things we didn't get sick from any of them. Some may think this is a stupid approach or viewpoint but that's their opinion, which they're welcome to. I say. "model on" Ol' 45

"verne foss" ha scritto nel messaggio news: snipped-for-privacy@storefull-3272.bay.webtv.net...

a dremel drill is enough :-| I accidentally hit the mandrel and sanded my middle finger on saturday...it took off some skin, not a big injury but really painful!!! =:-| Another good reason to use gloves.... :o)

Frankie

first thing that comes to mind is a severe "allergy" to an xacto knife or even a cutter on a dremel, that could cause loss of a finger tip pretty quick.

otherwise, maybe being "allergic" to cya glue which happens to have securely fastened your fingertip to the tabletop.

other than that, i don't see anything in the usual materials that could cause the symptoms described, but i am neither a doctor nor a rich and famous tv talk show hostess.

ironically, cya glue is pretty sterile; a purer grade is used for surgical glues, etc., Its potency is the exact reason that it's sterile; it's so reactive that any bacteria that may land in the liquid will be completely glued up in no time flat, much as you would if you happened to land in a swimming pool full.