Any danger of Devcon 5 Minute Epoxy with resins and polymercaptan amines?

[Moe Hair]

My window screen frame came apart at the top, so I decided to get a strong epoxy. I bought the Devcon 5 minute Expoy in my local hardware store. There were warnings not to get it on your skin as you mixed it, etc. Of course I got some on my skin, so I washed immediately. I also left a window open during the screen drying process.

Question: How dangerous is the warning below that accompanied the product? Should this product be avoided in favor of Duco Cement or Krazy Glue? Or is this in almost every product?

Warning: Contains epoxy resin and polymercaptan amines. This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer. Avoid contact with eyes and skin. Avoid breathing vapors. Use with adequate ventilation. Wear suitablle protective clothing.

[Joe Bobst]

Assuming you meant to ask about the product itself, the warning is valid as regards the hardener compound. Many epoxy co-reactants (hardeners) are organic amines which are known to cause dermatitis in sensitive individuals. For the majority of the public moderate brief exposure will be harmless.

No, use with some common sense. Like most things, adhesives are specialized. Learn their attributes and choose the right ones to do the job you want them to. HTH

Joe

[Moe Hair]

[e-mail] (Joe Bobst) opened in news: [e-mail]:

ok. Thanks for the advice. The warning about cancer was frightening.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Them Krazy Kalifornians require all sorts of ominous warnings. Over exposure to the chemicals can eventually cause a problem, but a small exposure usually bothers no one. Just clean off as best you can. Ed

[Art]

Most cancer warnings are based on rat studies. Also, in the headlines you often hear about some new drug does something wonderful to rats. Of course when they test on humans it doesn't work. You can bet that lots of those chemicals which cause cancer in rats do not cause cancer to humans just like the medications which work on rats don't work on humans. Humans are a bit more complicated than rats.

[rck]

In my job, I worked with various epoxies and hardeners for several years and had no ill effects until I suddenly became sensitized to it. Thereafter, a minute amount would cause an itching, painful rash. Now I wear gloves and apply a barrier hand cream before using it and I'm ok. For most people using it occasionally in small amounts, I can't see that it would cause a problem. If it were as dangerous as the warnings make it out to be, I should be dead by now because I used it regularly in large quantities for 20 years.

Bob

[do_not_spam_me]

There are warnings to make you safe (don't put epoxy glue into your eyes or eat it), and then there are warnings to help prevent lawsuits (epoxy may cause cancer). I don't know how nasty epoxy is to breathe, but I don't like the 5-minute type simply because it smells like burnt hair.

Lab rats are used to evaluate cancer risks because they're about the most uniform mammals available and, despite costing $1,000 apiece, it's far cheaper to test with them and expose them to high concentrations of the test substance than to test at normal levels in humans because the latter requires way too many subjects (hard to keep track, hard to prevent unknown quantities from being introduced or factored out) and way too much time for accurate results. When something gives lab rats cancer, it almost always gives humans cancer, too, but the risk may be so small to be barely meaningful. The problem is that warning labels for cancer don't distinguish between big risks (cigarettes, big doses of hydrocarbons or microfine carbon dust) and small risks (artificial sweeteners, epoxy that you use once a year).

Then there are inbred idiots who think that nothing is dangerous and that only crazy Californians worry about cancer.

[dadiOH]

I stopped worrying about those when they decided that Scotch whisky caused cancer. Plus, in California, *everything* causes cancer.

On the serious side, a cancer warning about a product or component thereof doesn't mean you are going to go toes up if it touches you. It means that it *may* cause cancer with frequent and/or prolonged contact. I'd worry more about sun induced cancer.

-- dadiOH _____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

[Jim Yanik]

Moe Hair wrote in news: [e-mail]:

The main problem is developing an allergy to the epoxy chemicals (with frequent use). When sanding the hardened epoxy,you need to do it outdoors or use a mask,you don't want to inhale the stuff.