When I'm painting with my laquer based paints I am in a room with the door open and I also use a resperator. Am I doing any damage to myself even with these precautions? Ryan
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Ventilation would also help. even a directional fan.
your respirator cartridges are rated or designed for paint fumes.
If you can smell the paint, your cartridges are the wrong type, are saturated to the point of Breakthrough, or there is a leak around the sealing surface of the mask. There is not a one size fits all in respirators, just as there is'nt a one size shoe for every foot. Also beards or anything that interfears with the sealing surface of the mask renders it useless.
Also, the problem of overspray and fire hazard.
With small particles of airborne paint exhausted from the room, either naturally or drawn by a fan, is the paint dried by the time it reaches your new truck, wife's or customer's car right outside?
Without adequate ventilation, the paint fumes can accumulate to a flash point or a degree that anything electrical in the room that is not explosion proof (perfectly sealed) can act as an ignition source and cause an explosion of the paint fumes.
History teaches lessons to learn from others mistakes. What a great site this is for us to get the information we need. The key is to use it.
Good luck
I had been Doing/Learning Taxidermy for approx. 15 yrs. I particularly enjoyed altering forms to make more "original" mounts. Some were good, some were...anyway, I also switched to lacquer based paints for various reasons. About 2 yrs ago I came down with a pneumonia type "thing" which I now know is called "Idopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis' it is a terminal disease that spreads thru the lungs shutting down the ability to process Oxygen into the blood (layman's terms). My shop was in my basement with a small fan to vent outside and I used what I thought was an adequate respirator "most of the time" The Doc's say Idiopathic means that they cannot determine the origin of the disease, and unfortunately there's no cure either. My point is: DON'T TAKE ANY CHANCES...Another thing about this disease is that you could be already in the early stages and not know it. It starts out very subtle, just a occasional slight cough or having to clear your throat from time to time but when it nails you, it will hammer you pretty good. It is actually more common than Cystic Fibrosis, but because of it's subtle symptoms it is many times mis-diagnosed. I'm not trying to scare anyone here...but I sure wish I listen to my wife when she would express her concerns about the odors. OVERKILL NEVER HURTS WHEN IT COMES TO SAFTY AND YOUR HEALTH. Best Wishes
Improve yer invironmint...or yer gonna end up wit brayne dammidge like ETCC.
~ ETCC