CharlyV - First my geocities site has gremlins, and now Bob M. can't do his hobby in peace without fear of catching some fierce E.T. disease...you're a real hypochondrite, man !!
Just joking Charly, for what it's worth I'm a chemist, and CharlyV is right on (Peace).
According to the American EPA (see link), it is a linear response relating refinery dust (includes sulfides), if your breathe it chronically you will have one in 10,000 odds, at 0.0000004 grams per cubic meter of air. That is considered quite large by toxicologists (chemist usually don't read the instructions, so chemists aren't usually of much help...their life spans are on the average 10 years less, too, really, and lets not look at the last years of quality). So it is a recognized human carcinogen.
They further say it is a linear cause effect relationship and show some epidimological numbers. Which roughly translate that snorting 0.000146 grams per cubic meter of air for just one day of the year having the same 1 in 10,000 results. Or looked at another way: The average person breathes about 8 cubic meters of air per day. These odds are for 1.17 mg total breathed in in one day. At 0.117 gram per day of Ni dust, one day a year...you have 1 in a 100 chance. of getting these cancers. Or at least one person on this list. My extrapolations are not rigorous...but they shouldn't be unfounded, either.
Did Nininger live to be 99 years old? Goes to show that individual response and statistics are two separate issues...but a dust mask is definity a good idea. Enough people get colon cancer from eating barbecued and smoked foods, to make it believable that ingesting burnt out stardust has a lot of inorganic nasties besides just worrying about nickel. One could always drop cutting and polishing for rose-garden tending...or just not breath that interplanetary and intergalactic dust in. Its not the same stuff Tinkerbell blows magic spells with...even though its nice to let the imagination run...
http://www.epa.gov/iris/subst/0272.htm
(this is the closest match the EPA has investigated.)
Saludos
Doug Dawn
Mexico
En un mensaje con fecha 12/12/2003 11:36:54 PM Mexico Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] escribe:
Asunto: RE: [meteorite-list] Re: Cutting Meteorites
Fecha: 12/12/2003 11:36:54 PM Mexico Standard Time
De: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Para: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Enviado por Internet
Yes, but only for a dremmel. You pro's cut with big equipment and use
liquid
Coolants that must trap all of the dust. A dremmel using a cutting wheel
really puts out a lot of dust in the air. Not being a chemist, I do
think that airborne nickel dust might be poisonous... A dust mask cannot
be a bad idea.
CharlyV
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bob
Martino
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 1:03 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [meteorite-list] Re: Cutting Meteorites
CharlyV points out that one should always use a dust mask when cutting
meteorites.
Great. As if my life wasn't complicated enough, now my hobby has a new
hazard associated with it:
"Chondrite Lung Disease"
-----
Bob Martino, Tucson, AZ
Can you really name a star? Read the Truth!
http://home.columbus.rr.com/starfaq/
.
>Subject: FW: [meteorite-list] Cutting Meteorites
>
>This response got lost somehow. re-posted here, likely an attachment
in
>thread exceeded text size limit..
>
>The Dremmel diamond blades are nice, but don't use them on irons or
even
>H chondrites. They just cannot take the punishment and your $15 or $20
>goes up in smoke in a few small slices. (even with lube). Believe
that
>the #420 cutoff wheels (tungsten carbide with quartz) used with
>paraffin work better. Try it yourself. You also get 20 for about
$4.00,
>good for a lot of cuts, and remember to use that candle. (oh. and eye
>protection and a silk scarf over your nose/mouth or one of those
cheap
>construction dust masks.)
>
>CharlyV
