nose filters

[turnbuckle_1 AT yahoo DOT co]

I wondered if anyone has had experience with the type of filters sold at

or I'm a wood carver and haven't paid much attention to dust, until a session with a chunk of butternut. I roughed it out with a fordom/kutzall (lotta dust) in the yard ..... 2 days later , flat on my back , in bed with sinus/chest infection that laid me out for 5 days. I tho't I'd done my homework on toxic woods , and butternut wasn't on the list....but a few oldtimers i've talked to have had adverse reactions with the stuff. Needless to say I now wear a mask, but it fogs my glasses and isn't great to do carving with.....drives me nutz.....but the options suck. If these nose filters could do the job , I'd appreciate the feed back.

Turnbuckle Turnbuckle_1 somewhere near yahooo dottie dom

[Joe Bemier]

I have not used them but I would guess they would have limited use for your application - wood dust. Given the very small surface area of the filtering device you would probably clog the things in minutes.

[George]

I carve with gouges and mallets, so dust is only a problem when sanding. One possible solution.

When sanding, a downdraft table seems to do well enough to allow me to wear a nuisance mask or not, depending on the wood and the wind. A second solution.

An infection does not result from exposure to wood dust, but overloading mucousa already challenged by bacteria might make it worse. A reaction to the extractives in one wood is likely to happen with a lot of other woods, because they're fairly similar, until you get to exotics. Be careful, but realize it's what you can smell, not what soils the Kleenex which is dangerous.

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

I hate wearing any kind of mask, have both an air cleaner and large dust collector in my shop and yet will wear a half mask respirator similar to what you see guys wearing in body shops when I'm working with something particularly noxious.

'm not pushing any of these as I really couldn't tell you what brand mine is without going back downstairs, but these are the style. One other I've used in the past at work is a full face mask with an external air pump (clips to your belt) that continuously blows in filtered air into the mask. We use them at work for working with TB patients. I loved it... it was like walking around with my own personal air conditioner... no problem with your glasses steaming or anything else.... but that style is expensive. As much as I'd like one, I just couldn't justify the $200-300 compared to the $25 or so I paid for the half mask respirator.