Face mask while painting?

OK here's a question I've been wanting to ask: How do y'all deal with toxins while painting, prepping, etc?
Here's a list of all the things that make me feel from blah to headache/sick:
dust & sanding - ok til end of day
no more gaps and putty (have a 1 or 2 hour window)
undercoat - almost immediate & then cummulative nausea heightened while doing ceilings
Oil paint - dragon

 

@WattleIdo can you use a face mask? One that people use when they're sick...

Other solution, pay someone else to do it

 

@WattleIdo good dust masks for each job. Australian standard rated! Not the $2 ones! For dust you want a "p2" minimum. For the other fumes /vapours I think it's p3, their usually green masks with 2 round filters hanging off the front. I'm a bit rusty. But make sure they are to aus standards

 

OK thanks. Do people really use these?

 

@WattleIdo - do people use the cheapies or the real ones. Anyone with any sense uses the real thing.

 

Just had a look - I think I need GP2.
No I've never seen anyone using a mask -cheap or expensive - while sanding or painting. But seems I need to.

 

I don't, but I know I should. Years of gyprock dust made me used to it.

It is worth it and also worth spending the money on, more comfortable and safer.
3m is reputable.
Check out bunnings, there are a lot of varieties out there depending what you want. Get a box of p2 disposable ones and something for odour and fumes

 

I used to believe that I didn't need my lungs too until I needed to breathe. Then I was born.

 

OK Boss

 

Painting! Maybe thats why I've had a headache for a few days....

 

You may or may not want to read this about paint...
Volatile organic compound - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
pinkboy

 

OK just had a read. Getting a mask tomorrow. Do you and your painters wear masks while sanding and painting?

 

Voc's are pretty nasty. What are the levels in house paint? I'd think they'd be low,I've worked with styrene and high content Voc's and it knocks your socks off, no where near house paint. We had it metered and it wasn't quite kosher! One dude was getting nose bleeds daily and constant head aches.

 

It is my duty of care to provide whatever PPE is required to handle all the chemicals we use. My staff at a minimum must wear full long clothes, boots, glasses and ear plugs before setting foot into the sheds, then after that they must wear the correct type of mask for the tasks they undertake. Sometimes full face and total respiratory suits are required for really nasty polyurethane and polyurea applications.

Check out these nasties which we use most weeks:
Isocyanate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Without going into too much detail how it works as a curing agent, it's imperative that you don't get it on you at all, as it even cures upon contact with your bodily fluids such as the moisture in your eyes which can send you blind, or inside your lungs which will cause you to suffocate to death. Nasty, nasty stuff.

House paints have low concentration of VOCs , however in low ventilated environment will still knock you for 6 if you're not used to it and can't see the signs to get some fresh air. These chemicals escape the paint, and that's how paint dries - its gotta go somewhere.

Because my guys are constantly sanding all these paints etc between coats and smoothing off urethane etc, they wear half masks generally all day.

The guys who abrasive blast wear suits and full helmet with breathing apparatus. Not like the old days where they wore a face shield and blasted with beach s and. Those guys are dead from silica exposure, similar to asbestos exposure.

The moral is - if it says to wear a mask, or gloves/goggles, long clothes etc - it says so for your safety.

pinkboy

 

That's exactly why working in the residential sector is riskier than on commercial sites - a lack of WHS awareness and implementation, companies come and go all of the time, sole traders, low skill levels avoiding licensing requirements, lack of MSDS & PPE and way too much DIY with NFI of the risks or consequences.

(Like @pinkboy - The horse that I ride is pretty tall on this issue).

 

Very helpful, thanks.

Hopefully this does the trick.

 

Better than a plastic bag over the head & an elastic band/cable tie.

 

Do I need something I can hook up to an oxygen tank while I paint the window?. If so, please recommend the product.

 

@WattleIdo - nah, as long as the lackie band cuts off any air escaping you should be fine for about a minute or two before passing out.

 

Really happy. I took back the British Paints Professional 4L oil paint x2 and exchanged it for the latest Dulux semigloss in oil. Paid around 8 x as much for the Dulux but it really does go on so well, looks great and doesn't make me sick.
Hallelujiah!
I thought that my resistance/immunity was shot due to the passing of years. But no, the cheap paint was just kr@p. It was the undercoat in oil that almost made me faint after just 1/2 hour or so. Tried again and only lasted 5 minutes. Clearly this is why Bunnings is discontinuing this line.
FYI:
I did ring Dulux this morning on 13 25 25 and pressed 2 for techical information. There wasn't much to be had, unfortunately. After ringing the lab, they got back to me to say that there are 386 vocs per litre in the dulux enamel and 394 in the British Paints Professional enamel. I know this is considered high in house paints these days as Porters Paints are close to zero. And Benjamin Moore apparently.
There must be more to it than vocs as ratios are fairly similar but I feel completely different.
I don't know what's in the undercoats which are the real headache material. Taubmans 3 in 1 will do me from now on though. Or maybe I'll try the new dulux one too.
I also wanted to know what the difference is in the compositon of the Dulux enamel and the BP Professional enamel products but they were only able to give me spiel. I can however, vouch for the dulux enamel being the best paint I've ever used. So easy to cut in with it. So smooth and beautiful.

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