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NEON- Re: Grinder Dust & shop contamination

> For what it's worth, I keep a large magnet, from a long dead loudspeaker,
> stuck onto the gringer where all the metal particles pass it.  It's
> amazing how fast it grows a metalic 'beard'.  Try it - it catches at least
> half of the filings.
> 
> Telford Dorr

Thats a great idea!  When I worked as a tube-bender at one neon plant in
Dallas, I would notice the "sparkler effect" whenever someone did metal
work in the shop... even a hundred feet or more from the glasswork area.
It made me realize just how much all the airborn poofter that is
produced in a shop can contaminate glass.  This metalic dust no doubt
permeates into boxes of new glass that are not sealed tightly.

BTW, speaking of contamination... I'm moving my shop in a couple of
months because of airborne crap that's entering my fires.  We discussed
this when the list was new, but I'll briefly summarize for those of you
who are new.  This is important, and I hope some of you by reading this
can recognize such a problem before it causes you bodily harm.

There's a sign painter next door to me.  I noticed that often there was
a noxious odor that seemed to eminate from my fires at certain times.  I
was able to narrow this down to the use of ogranic solvents next door.
The guy paints 4x8 panels and sets them in his shop to dry with a fan on
them.  Also wipes down large banners with mineral spirits prior to vinyl
application.

It wasn't just an odor, it made me SICK - and on a few occasions I was
rendered bedbound with servere vomiting and headaches's.

Sealing the wall bewtween his space and mine helped some, as did routing
my blower intake to the outside, and up wind (most of the time) from his
operation.  But it still happened every other week or so, and I
eventually sought the advice of an industrial hygenist.  She suggested I
call OSHA (since the guy was obviously violating many laws) but warned
me that they bring their own set of baggage.  I may have faced
rediculous fines myself for non-related stuff (no work-right posters on
wall, etc. - even though Annette & I are the only "employees")  I've
decided to cut my loses, forgo on expensive air-analyses, and just
_move_.

The MAJOR problems occured with laquer thinner, one-shot, and mineral
spirits... all mixtures of 5-6 organic solvents (VOC's).  Many of these
are very toxic by themselves.  Among their many combustion products:
aldehydes that are even _worse_, and the effects little studied.

I'm getting off track from Telfords reply here, but my point is:  when
you work neon, you need to be concerned about not only the contaminates
in the air, but the combustion products of those contaminates... you
face is stuck into them every day!

    -John
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