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I just got an airbrush. I use Vallejo Model Air paints and a Createx Airbrush Cleaner seen here: http://www.amazon.com/Createx-Airbrush-Cleaner-4-oz/dp/B000IVPWB8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351770715&sr=8-1&keywords=createx+airbrush+cleaner

I also have a container with a filter, seen here: http://www.amazon.com/Iwata-Medea-NAC-201-Cleaning-Station/dp/B000VADIVC/ref=pd_sim_hg_2

I put the paint in the airbrush and paint something. Then I put the Createx cleaner into the airbrush, insert the airbrush into the container, and spray it all out.

My question is, should I be worried about fumes? Do I need to wear a mask when I'm using my airbrush?

Technically- yes!
In theory, if you are in a well ventilated room and only occasionally use the airbrush then it isn't a huge concern.
I have a large room with a big window that opens right up so i spray next to it, however at home i do use a mask, i would recommend a rubber mask that covers the mouth and nose and uses replacement filters, it is a bit more pricey but worth the money as the disposable paper ones really aren't that good!
the paint fumes shouldn't pose a problem however the cleaner may may not the best to breathe in, i use the Vallejo airbrush cleaner and dont tend to suffer any ill effects if i dont use my mask.
Probably people on here may criticise me,but as i said right at the top, yes you should wear a mask if you are not using a means of extraction or ventilation.

Doofry

If there are harmful fumes you'd need to be using a respirator with organic filters, or you wouldn't be blocking anything.

3M manufactures reasonably cheap (~25 euros in Finland) re-usable maintainance-free masks like that filter organic gases, solvents and particulates. 4255 is the model number designed for use with solvent based paints.

If you're planning on doing lot of airbrushing 3M also has masks with replacement filters. But it does have higher startup-cost and the filters aren't that much cheaper if you're changing both the particulate and gas filters at same time. I'd go for A2P3 filters just to be on safe side.

Other manufacturers probably have similar equipment, 3M was just the only manufacturer I did research on.

As for your question, yes I'd use mask. You're working with solvents and while acrylics are non-toxic, I wouldn't bet on breathing pigment particles being 100% good thing for your lungs, so why take the risk?

 dufflebag wrote:
If there are harmful fumes you'd need to be using a respirator with organic filters, or you wouldn't be blocking anything.

This is an insane amount of overkill.

If you are airbrushing 8 hours a day, then sure, use a high end respirator.

If you are airbrushing for like 20 minutes or even an hour and you have access to windows, doors, perhaps a fan even, then you don't need anything strapped to your face.

It would take a lifetime of residual exposure to even start giving you any problems.

Then again tons of people on this forum seem to think that you need a mask to file down resin, as if these people are snorting lines of various dusts off their tables.

Pro tip: if you are sanding or filing resin in a manner that kicks dust up in the air, turn a fan on in your direction to move it away from your face and you'll be fine. Better yet, do that work on the porch or back yard.

For airbrushing, clean your brush away from your face and you will be fine. Who are all these people that are hovering over their cleaning bottles while running the brush?

Actually, all I was stating was that if he was worries about fumes, nothing but a respirator with organic filters would help.
Thanks.

 Aerethan wrote:
Then again tons of people on this forum seem to think that you need a mask to file down resin, as if these people are snorting lines of various dusts off their tables.

Pro tip: if you are sanding or filing resin in a manner that kicks dust up in the air, turn a fan on in your direction to move it away from your face and you'll be fine. Better yet, do that work on the porch or back yard.

You do not need to be "snorting lines of various dusts" to inhale resin dust, it can be so fine you can't see it and the very act of breathing in and out can keep it in the air a lot longer than you seem to think.

Mind you, your "Pro tip" seems to boil down to "Make it someone elses problem by blowing it next door", so maybe I shouldn't be too surprised that you don't seem to understand the problem here. The better solution is not to use a fan, but a vacuum cleaner to suck the particles out of the air and trap them in a filter. Paint residues, but not fumes, can be trapped with a home-made spray booth made with an oven extractor hood. (The filters for ovens are not fine enough to trap the fumes.)

If you have access to neither and you have to sand or file resin, do so underwater so that the particles are trapped in the water and can't get to your lungs. (Use soapy water and wash the mould release off the resin at the same time!)

You only have one pair, so look after them - whether resin dust is as hazardous as some people believe or completely harmless, why get in someone's face for not wanting to take the risk? I do all my rattlecan priming and airbrushing outside, either in the garage with the door open, or out in the garden, either way I have a respirator on in case the wind changes and blows the particles and fumes back at me. Resin sanding I don't do a heck of a lot of these days, but it's always either underwater so there is no 'dust' to worry about, or with a respirator and goggles on so not only can't I get dust in my lungs, I don't get it in my eyes either.

And before you say that is "an insane amount of overkill." I have a B.Eng in Polymer Engineering and have worked in the industry for getting on for 20 years now. (Resins, Rubbers, Bioplastics, and now Composites) There are reasons why people in those industries have regular lung function checks!

I tend to err on the side of "safe rather than sorry". Though the best idea I think is to minimise exposure and if using chemicals then read the warnings.

If you're doing a lot of airbrushing I'd wear a particulate filter for no other reason than coughing up paint isn't the most fun thing in the world. Particulate filters are fine for "mists", but not for "vapours"/"fumes", for which you need a chemical/gas filter, you need to know what you're dealing with.

Most gas filters expire over time (at least the ones I've used), less time if you use them often or even just have them exposed to air. So if you're using a mask that's a few months old while breathing your fumes, chances are it's not actually helping all that much. Because of that, you really want to know if you "need" one or not, otherwise it's a hassle keeping up to date with them.

FYI: Blowing a fan TOWARD yourself is a bad idea unless it's some epic huge fan that moves a heap of air in a large column. Most fans you buy at the supermarket stir up the air more than they actually move it, so they'll tend to take the dangerous stuff which is most heavily concentrated around the work piece and evenly distribute it around you rather than actually moving it away.

 Conrad Turner wrote:


And before you say that is "an insane amount of overkill." I have a B.Eng in Polymer Engineering and have worked in the industry for getting on for 20 years now. (Resins, Rubbers, Bioplastics, and now Composites) There are reasons why people in those industries have regular lung function checks!

Which was my point. Hobbyists are not exposed anywhere near as much as the people in your industry. Unless you are filing and airbrushing models all day every day, the exposure is minimal and the effects are virtually negligible unless you have super sensitive lungs or your models are made from asbestos.

My dad has been doing pest control for 15 years spraying toxic chemicals 8 hours a day. California regulations state that pest control techs MUST wear respirators whenever mixing or spraying pesticides. You know how many do? almost none. And not a single tech I've met who's been doing it for decades has a single lung issue.

Now granted resin doesn't exactly have the half life of pesticides, but the point remains that sparse exposure to these elements will not likely end up doing anything to you.

And since this is about airbrushing I'll not say anything more on resin.

The amount of vapor created by an airbrush is not enough to go traveling next door to kill the neighbors baby, nor is it enough to irritate your lungs unless perhaps you are actively trying to inhale it. Like I said, spray the cleaner away from your body, and if you can't do that, then hold your breath at least while it's running and turn your head away when you need to breathe.

Well, the cleaning pot that I have (and linked) has a filter. It's mainly the actual painting that I was wondering about.

 Aerethan wrote:


My dad has been doing pest control for 15 years spraying toxic chemicals 8 hours a day. California regulations state that pest control techs MUST wear respirators whenever mixing or spraying pesticides. You know how many do? almost none. And not a single tech I've met who's been doing it for decades has a single lung issue.

That has to be one of the more terrifying things I've heard about personal health safety. Granted, given that as stringent as California is on health safety and the requirements of wearing a respirator, they likely have rules for the kinds of pesticides being sprayed. Hence you don't see any immediate health issues as compared to other unhealthier pesticides used in the past couple of decades.

That still doesn't say that it is healthy. Any pesticide is still unhealthy, even if they don't look to have any lung issues, consider cancer.

Sparse exposure is still exposure. Some things will slowly and be harmful in very small ways, but over years that can grow. Over years that can wear down on your nerves, your skin, your lungs. Tiny exposures of heavy metals is tiny, but that stuff does not go out of your system, it stays in you. Yes, acrylic paints for the most part are all labelled as safe, but then again those toys containing lead that were made in china were labelled "safe" as well. That also does not mean that the labelling for the acrylic paint applies to its usage for spraying through an airbrush.

Either way, having just some basic ventilation and a mask filter are some good quick ways to safeguard your health, and that is definitely not going to kill you to get those set up.

 Tangent wrote:
Well, the cleaning pot that I have (and linked) has a filter. It's mainly the actual painting that I was wondering about.

Airbrushing atomizes the paint and as quoted by Wikipedia, "Even with small artist airbrushes using acrylic paint, artists must be careful not to breathe in the atomized paint, which floats in the air for minutes and can go deep into the lungs. With commercial spray guns for automobiles, it is vital that the painter have a clean air source to breathe, because automotive paint is far more harmful to the lungs than acrylic. " It's not something you can see, but it's still there, so ventilation and a mask with filter are good things to use. Even when spraying into a cleaner container, there are fumes still coming out through the filter. I can't say exactly how harmful that is, but it can definitely irritate the lungs.

Are you using a spray booth? If so the mask may not be as necessary depending on the design. The spray booth I use has enough flow to pull any overspray vapors through the filter. Having a mask is nice and it does improve things but a good spay booth can eliminate the need for one and also helps to keep the spray area clean.

 itsacoyote wrote:

 Aerethan wrote:


My dad has been doing pest control for 15 years spraying toxic chemicals 8 hours a day. California regulations state that pest control techs MUST wear respirators whenever mixing or spraying pesticides. You know how many do? almost none. And not a single tech I've met who's been doing it for decades has a single lung issue.

That has to be one of the more terrifying things I've heard about personal health safety. Granted, given that as stringent as California is on health safety and the requirements of wearing a respirator, they likely have rules for the kinds of pesticides being sprayed. Hence you don't see any immediate health issues as compared to other unhealthier pesticides used in the past couple of decades.

That still doesn't say that it is healthy. Any pesticide is still unhealthy, even if they don't look to have any lung issues, consider cancer.

Sparse exposure is still exposure. Some things will slowly and be harmful in very small ways, but over years that can grow. Over years that can wear down on your nerves, your skin, your lungs. Tiny exposures of heavy metals is tiny, but that stuff does not go out of your system, it stays in you. Yes, acrylic paints for the most part are all labelled as safe, but then again those toys containing lead that were made in china were labelled "safe" as well. That also does not mean that the labelling for the acrylic paint applies to its usage for spraying through an airbrush.

Either way, having just some basic ventilation and a mask filter are some good quick ways to safeguard your health, and that is definitely not going to kill you to get those set up.

The problem with it(especially in CA where the Department of Agriculture is insanely strict) is that these days the toxicity and half lives of the pesticides is pretty negligible to anything larger than an insect. Any seasoned tech knows this, and understands that there are virtually no real risks involved in the exposure of any of the liquid pesticides. The dusts(borax iirc and a few others) can irritate your lungs, but won't likely cause any damage or illness, and the rodenticides are only ever in solid form and are always handled with gloves on.

One such pesticide that is heavily regulated here in CA(despite being the single greatest pesticide invented) is Termidor CS. The rules governing it's application are quite strict. But the toxicity of it is pretty much nill to humans(even babies) and it's half life after ingestion or exposure is too fast for it's low toxicity to build up to any kind of meaningful amount. You could drink 2 gallons of the stuff straight and not get sick. At that amount it would take 2 weeks of not peeing to even start showing symptoms of illness, which once you started releasing fluids would go away shortly.

Since techs know there isn't any real risk, they forgo the hassle of putting on a respirator when they are spraying, especially if it's hot out. Back when I did that job, the only time I wore my breather was in attics so as to not breath insulation and when using dusts for termite jobs. Most of them don't wear gloves either, as regular washing solves any potential problems.

Hell one of the owners of Termidors primary distributor here in California sprays his garden with the stuff, and he's one of the most educated people in the US on pest control. Your dogs won't get sick, your babies will be fine. I spray that stuff indoors(never for customers, but for myself) because it works so well.


/rant

If you are concerned about the spray from your airbrush, a dust mask should do well enough for how much is in the air. Again though, the amount of exposure has to be considered in order to consider it any kind of real health risk.

And I'm honestly tired of people saying that things cause cancer. Everything causes cancer these days, just assume that risk with anything. I highly doubt that anyone has ever been diagnosed with cancer from airbrushing.

 Aerethan wrote:

 itsacoyote wrote:

 Aerethan wrote:


My dad has been doing pest control for 15 years spraying toxic chemicals 8 hours a day. California regulations state that pest control techs MUST wear respirators whenever mixing or spraying pesticides. You know how many do? almost none. And not a single tech I've met who's been doing it for decades has a single lung issue.

That has to be one of the more terrifying things I've heard about personal health safety. Granted, given that as stringent as California is on health safety and the requirements of wearing a respirator, they likely have rules for the kinds of pesticides being sprayed. Hence you don't see any immediate health issues as compared to other unhealthier pesticides used in the past couple of decades.

That still doesn't say that it is healthy. Any pesticide is still unhealthy, even if they don't look to have any lung issues, consider cancer.

Sparse exposure is still exposure. Some things will slowly and be harmful in very small ways, but over years that can grow. Over years that can wear down on your nerves, your skin, your lungs. Tiny exposures of heavy metals is tiny, but that stuff does not go out of your system, it stays in you. Yes, acrylic paints for the most part are all labelled as safe, but then again those toys containing lead that were made in china were labelled "safe" as well. That also does not mean that the labelling for the acrylic paint applies to its usage for spraying through an airbrush.

Either way, having just some basic ventilation and a mask filter are some good quick ways to safeguard your health, and that is definitely not going to kill you to get those set up.

The problem with it(especially in CA where the Department of Agriculture is insanely strict) is that these days the toxicity and half lives of the pesticides is pretty negligible to anything larger than an insect. Any seasoned tech knows this, and understands that there are virtually no real risks involved in the exposure of any of the liquid pesticides. The dusts(borax iirc and a few others) can irritate your lungs, but won't likely cause any damage or illness, and the rodenticides are only ever in solid form and are always handled with gloves on.

One such pesticide that is heavily regulated here in CA(despite being the single greatest pesticide invented) is Termidor CS. The rules governing it's application are quite strict. But the toxicity of it is pretty much nill to humans(even babies) and it's half life after ingestion or exposure is too fast for it's low toxicity to build up to any kind of meaningful amount. You could drink 2 gallons of the stuff straight and not get sick. At that amount it would take 2 weeks of not peeing to even start showing symptoms of illness, which once you started releasing fluids would go away shortly.

Since techs know there isn't any real risk, they forgo the hassle of putting on a respirator when they are spraying, especially if it's hot out. Back when I did that job, the only time I wore my breather was in attics so as to not breath insulation and when using dusts for termite jobs. Most of them don't wear gloves either, as regular washing solves any potential problems.

Hell one of the owners of Termidors primary distributor here in California sprays his garden with the stuff, and he's one of the most educated people in the US on pest control. Your dogs won't get sick, your babies will be fine. I spray that stuff indoors(never for customers, but for myself) because it works so well.


/rant

If you are concerned about the spray from your airbrush, a dust mask should do well enough for how much is in the air. Again though, the amount of exposure has to be considered in order to consider it any kind of real health risk.

And I'm honestly tired of people saying that things cause cancer. Everything causes cancer these days, just assume that risk with anything. I highly doubt that anyone has ever been diagnosed with cancer from airbrushing.

I only mentioned the cancer in relation to the pesticide, not to airbrushing. And while I understand that you say that the pesticide is so good it's drinkable, there are still lots of evidence that still exist out there for Termidor and it's main ingredients that can argue otherwise. So I'll leave that up to a thing where you make your own decisions on handling pesticides, I certainly can't claim to have personal experience on it. I'm not continuing with that any further since this is a discussion about airbrushing and not pesticides.

I'm only mentioning these just to be aware about possibly health issues when airbrushing, they're good to take into consideration, then take your own actions based on whatever you decide on, I'm not saying you're going to die if you don't take any precaution for your health. Wearing a full biohazard suit just might be a little overboard.

I don't use a spray booth, and was actually kind of wondering what they do. I thought their main purpose was just to keep the paint contained and not spraying all over your desk or whatever.

Spray booths are fitted with some form of extraction to remove the particulates from the air and filter it. A friend has made his own from plywood and an oven extractor hood.

If you can smell it,then the fumes can affect you.

 Conrad Turner wrote:
You do not need to be "snorting lines of various dusts" to inhale resin dust, it can be so fine you can't see it and the very act of breathing in and out can keep it in the air a lot longer than you seem to think.

I was just reading through the Imperial Armour Masterclass book and noticed they recommend a dust mask, but also say...

When filing or randing resin components, a small amount of dust will be created. Whilst resin dust is not actually harmful, a dust mask will prevent inhalation of it

It really depends on the resin and I'm not sure what resin GW and FW use. I know in our workshop we'd always wear masks when cutting resin fibres... however that may have been because of the fibre particles more than the resin, I'm not sure (typically glass, carbon and kevlar fibres with a polyester or epoxy resin)... also we were cutting large amounts of it with power tools. You could probably take a power sander to a titan and not produce as much dust as we had floating around when we were cutting fibre reinforced body panels.

So, I'm a little confused. What, exactly creates the fumes? Is it the act of using the airbrush with the paint inside? Or is it the paint itself, meaning that the same amount of fumes would be created if you just opened your paint bottle and let it sit there?

 Tangent wrote:
So, I'm a little confused. What, exactly creates the fumes? Is it the act of using the airbrush with the paint inside? Or is it the paint itself, meaning that the same amount of fumes would be created if you just opened your paint bottle and let it sit there?

No, airbrushing creates more fumes than just opening a pot of paint and letting it sit there. The biggest effect on the amount of fume given off by a substance is the surface area, so your pot of Humbrol, for example, should have a reasonably small surface area. If you were to take half the paint out of that pot, the surface area would stay the same, given that the pot is supposed to be the same diameter all the way up to the lid. If you were to run the half you took out through an airbrush, however, you need to add all the surface areas of each droplet together and that would be orders of magnitude bigger than the surface area of what was left in the pot.

However, the amount of fume also depends on the VOC (Volatile Organic Compound, IIRC, of which solvent is one) levels of the paint you are using. You may have seen these stickers on pots of household gloss. The higher the VOC level, the more fume will be produced. Emulsions, like those you use on the walls at home, are probably the lowest, enamels probably the highest in general use, with acrylics somewhere inbetween.

So the more solvent or thinner you add to your paint, the more fumes are given off, but you need to add solvent to get a paint to flow properly through an airbrush. This is why so many people suggest wearing a good quality fume mask whenever you are airbrushing. You are increasing the surface volume that the fumes will come from, there is an effect whilst the droplets are travelling through the air which increases the fumes given off, and you have almost certainly added more VOCs to get the consistency you need.

I don't deny that some people seem to have had no ill effects despite airbrushing or using other sprays for extended periods of time, but there are also people who have become very sick indeed from even limited exposure. The question you need to ask yourself is "Do I want to take that gamble?" Weigh the possible long term effects against the relatively small cost of decent respiratory protection, and make your own decision.

You have two concerns with airbrushing and safety - the first is with the solvents.

If you are using a straight water based paint with straight water based solvents (thinners and additives) you have little more concern relating to the "fumes" than you would when taking a hot shower. The fumes will be water vapor - you may smell different things based on the pigments used or other additives, but the smell is not necessarily indicative to a specific harmful substance. Some pigments have a specific smell to them, other times it is in their binders or other additives - but neither are indicative to a harmful chemical vapor.

If you are using a solvent based paint (either oils, enamels or alcohol based acrylics) you may have concerns relating to the solvent...you probably don't have a significant long term safety concern but short term with poor ventilation it can lead to a light headed or nauseous feeling depending on the solvent used. Most are in such small quantities that they can be safely metabolized by your body that there are no long term effects to them - but much like drinking several shots of alcohol in a short period of time...you may well feel it.

Assuming you are an otherwise healthy individual, the impact of a normal airbrush session on a normal model or miniature with solvent based paints isn't much different than filling a lawnmower with gas or having a few drinks on a Friday night (depending on the solvent of course). Remember, even if you were to spray a full paint bottle of a solvent based paint you would only be dealing with fractions of an ounce of solvent.

The other issue is actually more significant and was touched on itsacoyote is the atomized paint. Breathing in the paint is actually proven to be more harmful in both short and long term than any of the chemicals which we deal with. The paint settles deeply in the lungs and sets up creating a foreign object which can not be easily expelled by the bodies natural processes. As a result, it has a cumulative effect on the body, a little at a time over the course of 10 years or more the body still has all of the inhaled paint deep in the lungs.

Those particles are easily avoided though with a simple spray booth (which has an added benefit of preventing overspray from getting on books and other items you don't want it on) or through the use of a dust mask. Failure to do so though is an easy way to increase your chances of lung cancer by approximately 46% as the bodies response to foreign bodies is to create scar tissue around them an a portion of that tissue is prone to become cancerous.

The important difference between atomized paint and general dust in this regard is that the paint is still fluid when inhaled and is able to work its way deeper into the lungs and avoid natural defenses like cilia. Further, when it does cure - it has natural adhesive properties which prevent it from being expelled by normal respiration and coughing.

This is all very thorough, and I appreciate it a lot. So, the ultimate point here about a mask is that a mask can help, but it needs an organic filter. Right?

No.

The mask needs to be a simple particulate filter for 90% of miniature painters. You will probably be using regular water based paints.

If you are in the rare category of miniature painters who use lacquers, enamels or other paints that use solvents like turps...than you may want an respirator, especially if you paint a lot.

I use Vallejo Model Air. I thought those were acrylics. Or not? If they are, how does that factor in?

Vallejo Game Colour, Model Colour, and Model Air are all water based.

As are GW, P3, Reaper, Army Painter and damn near everything else we use.

 Tangent wrote:
I use Vallejo Model Air. I thought those were acrylics. Or not? If they are, how does that factor in?

What he said...

 Aerethan wrote:
Vallejo Game Colour, Model Colour, and Model Air are all water based.

As are GW, P3, Reaper, Army Painter and damn near everything else we use.

There is nothing which will release a harmful vapor or fume in water based acrylics. There are things that will release minor chemicals in some of them (some of the Vallejo paints use alcohol as their solvent - a couple of the metallics IIRC). There are a couple of things which we airbrush from time to time that might have harmful chemicals in small amounts (Dullcote for example is a lacquer which uses some relatively harsh chemicals as its solvent). A very small portion of miniature painters use a larger selection of paints which contain harmful chemicals (enamel and oil paints from companies like Testors, Humbrol and artist's oils for some effects).

The big thing to keep in mind though is that even if you are base coating a larger model - a land raider for example - the amount of potentially harmful solvent that you will be exposed to is minimal. You might feel temporary effects from the vapors, however the small quantities are easily metabolized by the body and harmlessly expelled from the body. Your primary hazard is from atomized paint which can settle into the lungs and stick quite well in place The result is a condition sometime known as painter's lung which is very similar to black lung disease - granted, it might be red, yellow and blue in the case of a painter.

If you use a good quality paint booth which has enough draw to pull the overspray away you are pretty safe from that. If not, use a good quality dust mask. I prefer the former, though many people don't have the space or resources for one. Dust masks are dirt cheap though.

A couple of observations here- airbrushing renders everything into a fine mist/dispersion and therfore makes it easy to inhale anything that doesn't immediately adhere to a surface.

I've tried spraying with and without a mask and using a spray booth and without, in the case of no mask and no booth I found that for a few days afterwards if I sneezed the contents of the tissue would be whatever colour I was spraying- yellow was a little odd and the appropriately named snot green was disconcerting but by far the wierdest was the blue! I don't believe that it's likely that these exposures to acrylic paint will have done me serious harm due to infrequent exposure, however it certainly isn't good for me so now I use a spray booth- just a cheap desktop one but it certainly ensures any overspray goes away from me and not into my lungs.

Secondly, the airbrush cleaner- this is a much more serious risk imo, the chemicals involved are solvents for the most part and can have a wide variety of effects on the body including both short term effects and long term damage up to and including loss of function to parts of your body- don't believe me? Fine, no skin off my nose, but I have a degree in chemistry and I wont be risking exposure any time soon.

If you'd like further confirmation please take a look at wikipedia- I suggest starting on the page about inhalant abuse, under the dangers and health problems. Before anyone pipes up with the fact that this is about deliberate inhalation and our exposure is likely to be accidental- sure you're right, but I will say that chemistry never really cares about your intent!

OT for a moment:

To the chap who is confident that all of the pesticides will not cause any harm to him, good luck with your continued health! I believe history is full of examples of people who thought that the chemicals they were exposed to wouldn't cause them any harm. Although our knowledge of such things is better now it tends to only be many years down the line where we get to find out the real long term effects. Good examples of this:

Hat makers used Mercury to make felt hats- hence the phrase "mad as a hatter" at the time the incidence of mental illness in hatters was put down to the repetitive boring work, now it is considered highly likely that they were suffering mercury vapour poisoning.
Match makers had alsorts of serious illnesses from exposure to Phosphorus at the time it was largely ignored or put down to poor living standards generally.
Coal miners often suffer serious lung issues from coal dust inhalation- often many decades after exposure.
Asbestosis can become a terminal illness and may be the result of a single exposure to asbestos which at the time of it's installation into buildings, everyone thought was perfectly safe.

Back OT- please consider using some kind of filtration, be it a spray booth or mask and at the very least try to ensure that you have a well ventilated area to use, as my Dad always says, better safe than sorry!

Winact wrote:

If you'd like further confirmation please take a look at wikipedia- I suggest starting on the page about inhalant abuse, under the dangers and health problems. Before anyone pipes up with the fact that this is about deliberate inhalation and our exposure is likely to be accidental- sure you're right, but I will say that chemistry never really cares about your intent!

A better place to start would be the MSDS for anything which might be hazardous.

If you are using a cleaner which is hazardous and not using a catch container for the waste - then you might have concerns due to the larger volume being sprayed compared to paint. However, most cleaners which are not specific to dealing with lacquers or oils are not hazardous - at least no more than alcohol is (which is to say, not too bad in small quantities on an intermittent basis).

Winact wrote:

OT for a moment:

To the chap who is confident that all of the pesticides will not cause any harm to him, good luck with your continued health! I believe history is full of examples of people who thought that the chemicals they were exposed to wouldn't cause them any harm. Although our knowledge of such things is better now it tends to only be many years down the line where we get to find out the real long term effects. Good examples of this:

Hat makers used Mercury to make felt hats- hence the phrase "mad as a hatter" at the time the incidence of mental illness in hatters was put down to the repetitive boring work, now it is considered highly likely that they were suffering mercury vapour poisoning.
Match makers had alsorts of serious illnesses from exposure to Phosphorus at the time it was largely ignored or put down to poor living standards generally.
Coal miners often suffer serious lung issues from coal dust inhalation- often many decades after exposure.
Asbestosis can become a terminal illness and may be the result of a single exposure to asbestos which at the time of it's installation into buildings, everyone thought was perfectly safe.

1. This isn't 1859. We have this thing called science. It allows us to accurately measure and understand toxicity, half lives, and every possible molecule of everything on the planet. The science itself says that there is no risk of pesticides killing you by the same manner in which they kill pests.
2. Coal miners have 8-12 hours a day of exposure to that environment without respirators, 5-6 days a week for years on end. Of course they will have issues, and the particulates in coal dust aren't pesticides now are they? Those people should be wearing breathers all day every day in that environment.
3. Chemicals are MUCH more regulated in 2012 then they were even 30-40 years ago. Now that we have the capacity to dissect anything on the planet down to it's elements, we know what the potential side effects of those things are.

Like I said, I know people who have been doing pest control for 20+ years without regular use of respirators and I've never once met someone from that field who had any lung issues not directly related to smoking.

And I did say that if he's airbrushing 8 hours a day that he should use one. But if you spray for 30 minutes a few times a week, the exposure is minimal as is the risk. You can't compare risk like that to career miners.

 Aerethan wrote:
1. This isn't 1859. We have this thing called science. It allows us to accurately measure and understand toxicity, half lives, and every possible molecule of everything on the planet. The science itself says that there is no risk of pesticides killing you by the same manner in which they kill pests.

You place vastly too much faith in science. Trust me, I'm a researcher (not in chemistry or biology, but none the less) Even now MSDS' are constantly updated as new things are found which cause harm and other things which are thought to have cause harm are shown not to be. I've read MSDS of chemicals that are in common use and they clearly state there aren't known effects but it hasn't been fully tested to know, so remain cautious. That said, I agree people get way too nervous about things, though on the flip side I tend to be a bit too flippant with my health.

If someone would rather be safe than sorry, that's no skin off my back.