I am finding myself building more rods than I ever thought I would. I am wondering if there are any long term health concerns with using epoxy other than sensitization. I have e-mailed a few of the sponsors that manufacture epoxy, but no response yet. I do wear a respirator now when doing handle assembly and finishing. I have been using Diamondite more too.

Thanks for any info,
Marc

[www.dermnetnz.org]

It is probably very wise for the people who formulate, repackage and sell rodbuilding epoxy products not to give detailed advice. The OSHA regulations that govern make it very clear it is YOUR responsibility to develop safe handling procedures and follow all guidelines when dealing with any chemicals. The vendors legal responsibility requires that they provide a MSDS and Safety Sheet when asked by users. If you are employing others and use chemical products it is a OSHA requirement that the MSDS and the Safety Data Sheet be on site for immediate review and that you provide all required safety equipment.

OSHA Solvent Safety:

[www.osha.gov]

Good Practical Advice For Handling Epoxy when rodbuilding:

[www.epoxysafety.com]







Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2007 10:59AM by Bill Stevens.

Some builders have had skin problems with some finishes
Good Wraps Bob. I ware surgicak gloves

Actually, many of the things used in the rod building business are less than user friendly.

It is a good idea to wer surgical gloves when working with any glue, finish, or cleaning material.
Many of the materials can be absorbed into the body through the skin.

In particular, the hardner, the absorbtion of alchol, or xylene is common. So, to avoid such allergy reactions, it is a good idea to keep the skin covered.

Also, if you have to use something like acetone - which is very toxic in a closed enviornment - be sure to do it only out of doors, or in a well ventilated area.

Take care
REW

Definitely gotta agree with absorption of alcohol...

Putter
Williston, ND

Ultimately there is no single answer to your question, because the term “epoxy resin” can be attached to many organic molecules with at least one “epoxide” functional group. An epoxide is a specific type of ether consisting of 2 carbon and 1 oxygen atoms formed into a ring. The bond angle between these is 60 degrees (an equilateral triangle), which is much tighter than most carbon ring structures. This produces a phenomena called “ring strain” which weakens the ring and makes it quite reactive with a variety of other functional groups, including, but not limited to, the amines in your “hardner.” By the way, your body is full of amines as well. The fact that so many different chemicals are sold in epoxy resin systems is the reason that the MSDS sheets Bill mentioned are so important. Get them. Read them. Understand them. Every time you use any chemical, even common household chemicals, you are taking a calculated risk. Get the MSDS sheets and learn to love them. Some websites (beyond wikipedia) with a lot of good information on specific chemicals are chemfinder.com and the Sigma-Aldridge catalogue. The latter is a large chemical supply firm that distributes mostly research-grade reagents, but their website has a lot of good information on materials science topics as well. A third source is the website Pubmed Central. This is an archive of scientific journals with free full text articles. I just went on and the key-word search “epoxide toxicity” turned up over 800 hits, “benzene toxicity” well over 2000 and “acetone toxicity almost 4000. All of these sources are technical in nature, but if you are willing to put in the time you will most likely be able to find the specific answers you are looking for.