dust and stuff in lungs..????

Question

i was just wondering...when building or renavating a house...if the whole time you did not wear a mask and breathed in dust and things like when sanding plaster..foam...cutting wood...drilling metal...what happens to all the stuff you breathe in?? does it come out somehow? does it cause any medical problems later in life. like lung cancer?????thankyou heaps..

Answer 1

Read the stuff on this web page

http://www.diysafe.nsw.gov.au/manage.html
and
http://www.diysafe.nsw.gov.au/hazard_blg.html

Make yourself aware of the potential hazards of renovating your house, ESPECIALLY if the house is over 25 years old. Renovating houses can be very dangerous if you do not take the appropriate precautions.

And by the way, when you purchase a mask, buy a P1 or P2 rated respirator with disposable cartridges. You can get them from a hardware store. They are not cheap, but they will protect you from some of the finer toxic dusts. This is what the professionals use. Don't use those disposable paper masks - they are close to useless.

Answer 2

Usually if you are healthy, any dust/particles you breathe in will be caught in the mucous lining of your respiratory tract and you will cough it up. However, for someone who is already sick (chronically sick, usually the elderly) or with respiratory conditions such as asthma, it is a major concern for them to breathe in any excess particles as their body may not be able to remove it. Then it stays in the lung and causes pneumonia...

Having said that, not wearing a mask while remodeling your house would not cause a respiratory condition or cancer... just because the exposure time was so short. You will notice that (smart) people that do this stuff for a living will wear respiratory masks... dry wallers, welders, even nail techs... to prevent any material from being inhaled.

Answer 3

You should be wearing a mask. The particles get trapped in lungs and then lungs produce mucous and cough trying to expel it from lungs. Inhaling dust from lumber that is water resistant/pressure treated has been known to cause arsenic poisoning. It's not that it is hard to diagnose, it's just that symptoms are vague at first and not one of the first things drs look for. Wear a mask--especially if renovating an older home--asbestos--mesothelioma.

Answer 4

The bronchial tube are coated with tiny hairs called cilia. They move in a wave like pattern that pushes mucus and particles out of the respiratory system. Smoking paralyzes these 'hairs'. With each cigarette they stop moving for a little while. When a person smokes often, the hairs eventually stop moving altogether. That's why smokers develop a cough. The actually need to cough up the mucus instead of letting the hairs bring it up slowly.

Answer 5

Well, I think it's probably ok...but it's always safe to wear a mask anyway. In sculpting class, you never want to breathe in the clay powder because it has silicone, heavy things that your lungs cannot get rid of. But they do not have the same warning on clay powers and pigments.

Answer 6

You can get a respiratory infection from inhaling dust particles. If you don't have any symptoms now I guess I wouldn't worry. Just buy a mask for future use.

Answer 7

Dust and Stuff in your lungs
Dust and Stuff between your ears