Ever get ill after using a line-trimmer?

[willshak]

on 8/15/2009 10:57 PM (ET) ShadowTek wrote the following:

Yes. I got dizzy and I started to see double. It got so bad I had to stop drinking beer. :-)

[ShadowTek]

Oh I never use a trimmer without safety glasses. I never use a mower without em either.

The biggest irratation to me in the summer is chiggers.

Personal bug spray helps, but I always take a very thorough shower after I've been outdoors for any length of time. I can't stand itchy chigger bites.

Yes, a 4-wheel-drive vehicle is required to reach the location on all but the dryest of days, which makes it difficult to find people willing to do any sort of work on that property, inside or out.

[ShadowTek]

Within an hour or so, there was noticeable itchiness in the throat. That symptom I could simply attribute to an allergy, so it may or may not be coincidental to the later symptoms.

Maybe six hours later, after I had returned home had a long shower, my throat would start swelling, my head would start swimming, mucus production in the upper respiratory area would increase, and light coughing would start.

It generally felt like I had a cold, and it lasted throughout the next day.

I have been suggesting that it was probably mold/fungus because I have recently experience a very similar reaction after having inspected a mold-filled house that had suffered from water damage. As in that instance, the symptoms came on later that night, lasted for about a day, and felt just like having a brief cold.

One thing that I was lacking from your description was sneezing. In none of the previously mentioned instances did I experience any sneezing.

[ShadowTek]

It's usually pretty humid around here in the summer, so it helps to keep the dust down, but last summer was very dry, and I noticed that mowing over patches of bare earth would often produce a large plume of dust. I

*really* didn't like having to mow over areas littered with dried-out dog crap during such dry days.

In the West, I could easily imagine that it would be big concern.

[Kurt Ullman]

NOrmal allergic reaction. This is the late phase response. If you are interested in all the gory details, I would suggest:

Sneezing is a response by cells in the nasal passages to expel nasty stuff. If the nasty stuff is small enough, you won't get sneezing.

[ShadowTek]

I *was* bustin up a lot of pokeweed, and I know they're toxic.

It could have been that, but I figured that the reaction would have been more immediate it that was the case.

How rapidly did you get sick after trimming those Azaleas?

[ShadowTek]

You keep harping on this as if I have claimed that *I* am the owner of this property, which I am *not*.

I posted about this issue because I am interested in understanding the realationship between line-trimmer-use and disease.

I also have a 2-cartridge respirator, and I'll use it if a dust mask ends up being insufficient.

[Michael B]

[ShadowTek]

If it's normal to experience an allergic reaction that lasts for more than a day, then I guess that's all it was. I've just never before experienced a exposure-reaction like that which came on so late and lasted for so long, other than that moldly house incident.

[scorpionleather]

When the garden work triggers my head allergy it usually starts a few hours after exposure to the dust/vegetation and lasts for a couple days after that.

The interesting thing is that otherwise, I have no allergies whatsoever. It's only when the garden dust is kicked up when I get these head cold symptoms. I guess all these microscopic pollen and creatures and whatever else I don't even want to imagine it could be, is entering my nose and my immune system is treating these things as foreign invaders. It makes sense because who knows what kind of nasty toxic things exist in that dust/vegetation cloud that I'm creating with the garden tools. I should probably wear a mask more often.

[SteveB]

I did not harp on this. It was the first time I brought it up, and it was a suggestion, and not a "why" question, as it you had intent.

This thread has now been so convoluted, I can't tell if you are the OP or just a contributor. I have more comments, but some are for the OP, and some are for the PG. (peanut gallery)

Steve

[E Z Peaces]

I get delayed symptoms something like that sometimes when I trim my hedge with hand tools and it's covered with pollen and sometimes when I crack and eat pecans from my yard.

I don't know if my occasional delayed reaction to pecans comes from microbes or a natural preservative within the nutshell. If I want to be safe, I rinse the shelled nuts and heat them in the microwave. They taste better that way, anyway.

One might think that if ever there was a plant one should not pulverize with a string trimmer, it's poison ivy. I've done it routinely for decades with never a rash. I have had severe poison-ivy rashes that had nothing to do with string trimming. I suppose string trimming is relatively safe because what it throws tends to stay low.

I suppose you got a dose of pollen. Cheap antihistamine pills might help.

[ShadowTek]

Oh, sorry, my eyes must have wandered when I read the name of someone that *you* responded to earlier in the thread.

I thought it was the same guy posting the same thing again.

[ShadowTek]

Actually, I seem to be immune to poison ivy, as I can rip that stuff out all day long with my bare hands and never be bothered by it.

I never have a problem whn trimming stuff that's low, I was just posting in reference to cutting through stuff that's at least at tall as you are.

[E Z Peaces]

Wouldn't the pulverization have been low? But it wouldn't take much shaking to release pollen at face level.

[JIMMIE]

It didnt take long, I accidentally ingested some of the sap. I scraped my knuckle and sucked on it not thinking about my hands being coated in the sap.

Jimmie

[ShadowTek]

I don't just cut things at the base, since the top part of the plant will then drop all at once and tangle up the line. I start from the top and work my way down.

[aemeijers]

Sounds like that is part of your problem. Might I suggest going retro, and getting yourself a scythe or sickle to keep up there, and doing the initial clearing by hand? Chop it low, and use a pitchfork and scoop shovel like giant salad tongs, to gather it up?

-- aem sends...

[E Z Peaces]

I can't imagine having the line on a string trimmer tangle up. In waist-high grass, I'll make my first pass high because the mass of resilient vegetation down low would bog down a string trimmer.

I wouldn't attempt head-high stuff with string because I'd expect some weeds that tall to be tough enough to cause splitting in the .090 line I use.

For stuff that tall I have a disk with 3 replaceable nylon blades a little like propellers for model airplanes. They'll cut anything short of wood. Nothing bogs them down. The trimmer is more controllable than with string because cutting doesn't cause a pull. My clothes stay neater because they don't throw debris as much as string. Presumably they would throw less pollen into the air than would string.

[SteveB]

Then, I take it that you are NOT the person who originally wrote in for advice on how to handle the dust when trimming high weeds. Am I correct?

Steve