Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Re: Epoxy: epoxy safety *PIC*
By:JohnAbercrombie
Date: 10/15/2017, 12:43 pm
In Response To: Epoxy: epoxy safety (Paul Sylvester)

I always recommend avoiding (eliminating) skin contact with epoxy, and try to avoid the possibility of getting epoxy components into my lungs. So I would never spray epoxy, and I hesitate to use much heat (heat gun) around uncured epoxy. I also use plenty of fresh air ventilation when working with epoxy.

I go through gloves by the boxful and wear long sleeves (sometimes Tyvek oversleeves) when in the shop.

So, I would never tell anybody not to be careful around epoxy or solvents.

When I did some reading about scleroderma, I came across the 'epoxy' reference in a number of 'consumer level' information sites.

A Google book search ('scleroderma epoxy') led to "Dermatotoxicology edited by Klaus Peter Wilhelm, Hongbo Zhai, Howard I. Maibach" published in 2008.

I don't know how to copy text from Google books, but you may be able to read the following paragraph image.

For me, the important thing is that all those 'epoxy' references appear to be based on one industrial situation in Japan in the early 80s where 6 of 233 workers exposed to the vapor of epoxy resins developed symptoms of one form of scleroderma. According to the authors, "further outbreaks of epoxy resin induced scleroderma have not been reported".

There's a big range of epoxy resins and hardeners; some are probably more volatile and/or dangerous than others.

Consult the MSDS sheets for your epoxy system; the WEST sheets are at
http://www.westsystem.com/safety/safety-data-sheets-sds/

Messages In This Thread

Epoxy: epoxy safety
Paul Sylvester -- 10/15/2017, 6:46 am
Re: Epoxy: epoxy safety *PIC*
JohnAbercrombie -- 10/15/2017, 12:43 pm
Re: Epoxy: epoxy safety
JohnAbercrombie -- 10/15/2017, 12:47 pm
Re: Epoxy: epoxy safety
Bill Hamm -- 10/29/2017, 1:23 am
Re: Epoxy: epoxy safety
Paul Harker -- 10/15/2017, 1:05 pm
Re: Epoxy: epoxy safety
Jay Babina -- 10/16/2017, 7:51 am
Re: Epoxy: epoxy safety
JohnAbercrombie -- 10/16/2017, 6:22 pm
Re: Epoxy: epoxy safety
Bill Hamm -- 10/19/2017, 1:58 am