[Jewelry making - Article 00715] - Re: [Orchid] Ultrasonic cleaner and damage to hands

[Bruce Holmgrain]

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    Danny, Thanks for the disertation on sound waves. It was a great
    tonic to spark the imagination and to help visualize what sound
    really is and how it works. 

    A couple of points. 

>         As the pressure drops, so does the boiling point, so that it's
>     about 35 deg. on top of Mount Everest. 

    In fact, water on the top of Mount Everest will boil at 78C or 172F,
    note the atmospheric pressure  AT  29,000 feet,
    http://wwwsam.brooks.af.mil/af/files/fsguide/HTML/Chapter_02.html A
    calculator for the boiling point of water is  AT 
    http://www.biggreenegg.com/boilingPoint.htm 

>         Because sound consists of compressions followed by rarefactions
>     of pressure, high energy sound can yield high vacuums, followed
>     very quickly by high pressure. Consequently, if living tissue is
>     exposed to high energy sound (of any frequency) water in the cells
>     can boil, leading to areas of very low pressure, which are then
>     re-compressed, giving rise to gas bubbles. 

    I wonder why I can add a beaker of liquid, especially water and find
    that it never boils in the ultrasonic cleaner. Why would water in
    tissues do this? hmm.... After thinking a bit, I remember. These are
    mostly microscopic bubbles that collapse as quickly as they are
    created. In fact, in a contained medium such as living tissue, they
    may not even be created at all. I would like some substantiation
    before I would assume that the bubbles are a reality. That is really
    my point to the my original post. 

>         Gas bubbles in living tissues can cause many different
>     problems: in blood vessels, it's called an embolism, and can block
>     veins and arteries, killing dependant cells; in nerves, it can
>     trigger random firing and twitches as the nerves are cut off from
>     the brain; in joints, it's called the bends - yes, it's the same
>     thing careless divers get - and can, if untreated (in bad cases,
>     even if treated), stiffen the joints. 

    The formation and collapse of bubbles in living tissue is quite
    different than the bends. The bends is caused by disolved gases
    particularly nitrogen, forming bubbles after being compressed into
    the tissues. Unless properly recompressed, these bubbles do not
    collapse at all. It is watched for particularly closely in dives of
    sixty feet of more for sixty minutes or more. At this depth,
    pressures of nearly two additional atmospheres, with time, will allow
    an additional two liters of nitrogen to disolve into the body. This
    gas begins to escape from the tissues as bubbles when the diver
    arrives at the surface. Just like fizz from a soda. 

    For sure, it can and will cause embolism and a whole lot of other
    symptoms including the possibility of catastrophic failure.See
    http://www.rescuediver.org/med/bends.htm 

>         It may also contribute to arthritis. 

    Can I get a cite on this? 

>         Since it leads to cell death, long-term exposure is cumulative. 

    Cumulative? Usually, this adjective is reserved for types of
    polution, such as heavy metal accumulation, asbestosis or silicosis,
    some type of damage that the body cannot undo. These materials can
    not, to the best of my knowledge, be removed from living tissues and
    therefor the damage is called cumulative, as the continued behavior
    that started the problem,  will increase the concentrates of these
    poisons. Normally, dead cells will be replaced with new cells, except
    with the age old problem of old age. If death of cells ever occurs
    from the misuse of jewelers ultrasonic cleaners, I would expect them
    to grow back. I can't prove this today, but I am in search of proof
    of the damage that I keep hearing of in his forum. 

>         High energy ultrasonic devices are being used in medical
>     experiments to perform non-invasive surgery (see, for instance,
>     http://www.icr.ac.uk/education/studentships/terHaar1.html) 

    Fascinating stuff happening here. From the link. " If the energy
    carried by the ultrasound beam is sufficiently high, the cells within
    the focal volume are killed (ablated), but cells overlying and
    surrounding this region are undamaged." 

    Note that the beam is a focused high energy beam. The surrounding
    tissues are undamaged. I doubt a one hundred twenty watt jewelers
    ultrasonic cleaner can claim a high energy output or a focused beam.
    My ultrasonic cleaner is further weakened by the fact that the heater
    is included in the120 watts. 

>         So, Tina, in answer to your question, holding the cast tree in
>     the ultrasonic cleaner can lead, in the long-term, to tissue
>     damage. 

    Maybe to old age, if you hold it long enough. This begs the question,
    how much of the energy in the ultrasonic cleaner do you assume travels
    up the tree into Tina's hand? Why would it stop at the wire? For that
    matter why would it stop at her hand. Maybe it travels through her
    head on into the ether. Perhaps we should be sure to turn the unit off
    whenever imersing a piece. I can see how the folks that service
    cleaners will be making a couple of extra bucks now. I think that I'll
    be picking up stock in the electronics parts companies. There will
    soon be a rush on switches! 

    My purpose in my original post was really to get a real authority to
    tell us what dangers there really are. Note that I will be the first
    to admit the I spent the first half of my adult life acting like and
    idiot and in my later years I often find myself believing that I have
    grown into a moron. (For the uneducated, that was once an upgrade of
    about 25 IQ points.) I have done everything wrong. 

    Today, I want to know not only when and where to change but possibly
    more importantly why. I just can't accept without some proof that
    cleaners used in jewelry shops are harmful. 

Bruce Holmgrain
JACMBJ
http://www.goldwerx.com


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