Working Spalted Wood - A Caution

[Joel Jacobson]

When working spalted wood be extra careful to avoid kicking up and breathing any wood dust. Mold spores in your lungs can be a nasty experience.

Joel

[Swingman]

On that same note, thought I'd mention the following in case some are not aware of the danger, which had never dawned on me before.

I am just now getting over almost two months of "lung infection" ... which was a little bit too much of a catchall diagnosis for my skeptical nature.

I was pretty well convinced in my own mind that it was related to wood dust, although I'd never had a problem before. Although the doctor's kept ignoring me when I brought it up, visions of having to give up woodworking kept popping into my head. I stayed out of the shop in any case for the duration.

Just this past week they believe they isolated the culprit. Going back over my actions, I had cleaned out the barbecue pit two days prior to the first symptoms. Come to find out, breathing charcoal dust from a barbecue pit is almost guaranteed to give you a lung infection, young or old. The pulmonary function folks said that just the act of tipping over a barbecue pit and dumping the dust is responsible for a large percentage of their business.

I've found another use for my dust mask real quick.

[George]

Spores are in the fruiting bodies - mushrooms. Darwin would certainly exact a heavy price on any species which tried to spread by burying its spores inside solids. Don't play with the bark.

Now as to the toxins produced by the mycelium - what you're seeing - to preserve their chow from competing bacteria, they're our antibiotics, and, as you know, some powerful allergens to boot.

[Fred the Red Shirt]

Now that's an interesting point, a species that relies on woodworkers to cut the wood open and spread the spores. Sort of like tapeworms relying of dogs swallowing fleas as they groom--the tapewrom larvae infest fleas.