[Jewelry making - Article 00109] - Re: [Orchid] Protecting stones with wet newspaper

[John Donivan]

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>     What more do you all know about the health and safety issues in a
>     studio? I like that this forum may be used for educating each
>     other... 

    I'd like to address a common theme that is here on Orchid, and that
    is that somehow your typical jewelry work is chemically dangerous. If
    you are soldering silver or gold, polishing it and cleaning it, then
    you are safer than you are in your kitchen. The biggest danger in
    your typical jewelry shop is from fire. A rundown: Boric acid is
    rated as about as toxic as table salt, borax is considerably less.
    Sodium fluoride, which I'm assuming is the fluoride in flux, is only
    moderately toxic, and sparex will give you acidosis, but it's not
    very dangerous either, really. One time I threw a piece in a bucket
    of sparex and a drop nailed me right in the eye. It burned about like
    getting a good bit of soap in your eye. Denatured alcohol is bad to
    drink, but you'll just throw up, and when it burns it just makes
    carbon dioxide and water. All of the above presupposes that you would
    ingest any of those things to begin with. Dipping a piece in boric
    acid and alcohol and then setting it on fire creates CO2, as do you
    as you breathe. Putting a drop of fluoride flux on it and heating it
    creates water vapor with the tiniest bit of chemical in it, and if
    you ate that drop instead it would do you no great harm. Putting it
    in pickle is harmless to you, that is unless you somehow want to
    drink it. All polishing compounds are non-toxic, period. The word
    toxic does NOT mean it's not good for you, it means that it is
    poisonous in some way. Polishing compounds are dust, and yes, it's
    bad to breathe dust, but that's all. To a point your body's defense
    mechanism - mucous and coughing - will clear it out unless you overdo
    it. I suspect that some schools or someone somewhere has gone
    overboard with the chemical paranoia thing in the shop, and it's just
    unwarranted. The worst thing you'll probably have is Attack, which is
    a potent carcinogen, or if you get into etching or some other
    specialty that involves more high-powered chemicals. The last job I
    had before I opened my own place used HF to clean platinum and
    engaged in bombing, which you either know of or you don't (cyanide
    stripping)., But they were a commercial, professional shop. The
    bottle of vinegar you have in the cupboard is about as powerful as
    pickle, or a little less. The ammonia and the chlorine bleach under
    the sink are WAY more dangerous than anything at the jeweler's bench,
    and any pesticides or even fertilizers you have in your garage are
    even beyond that. Don't be paranoid - if you drink flux you'll get
    sick, but why would you want to do that?

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com
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