Small Wooden Ornamentals

Discussion in 'Hobbies & Crafts' started by Frank Sanoica, Apr 17, 2018.

  1. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2016
    Messages:
    9,297
    Likes Received:
    10,619
    Today, my wife looking for fancy trim to complete a little trinket display stand we built, I looked over small, turned fancy things like finials and corner-pieces to adorn larger items.

    Every one had a warning sticker pasted on: "Wood dust is known to the State of California to contain materials which cause cancer or birth defects. Do not breathe wood dust."

    Wood dust? As in sawdust? Do carpenters have higher than expected rates of cancer? All the butcher shops in our community when I was a kid had floors coated with sawdust! Seems California is very, very concerned about it's citizens' health. After all, look at the L.A. Basin.........

    Frank
     
    #1
  2. Hedi Mitchell

    Hedi Mitchell Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2017
    Messages:
    8,797
    Likes Received:
    15,381
    P. S. people in California are weird anyway:rolleyes:
     
    #2
  3. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 9, 2015
    Messages:
    55,669
    Likes Received:
    23,301
    psssst. I think it's living in California that causes cancer. ;)
     
    #3
    Ken Anderson and Frank Sanoica like this.
  4. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
    Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2018
    Messages:
    11,069
    Likes Received:
    20,467
    As I understand it, in California you have to prove that something does not cause cancer if it has ever been shown to cause cancer in animals. As you know, the dosages of things given to experimental animals is generally much higher than anything you would normally be exposed to. That is why coffee has to carry a label in California now that it is known by the State of California to cause cancer--some compound formed by the roasting process has caused cancer in some dosage in some experiment sometime in the past. I am sure, having once lived there, that the air in most of California is more carcinogenic than wood dust or coffee.
     
    #4
    Frank Sanoica likes this.
  5. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2016
    Messages:
    9,297
    Likes Received:
    10,619
  6. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2016
    Messages:
    9,297
    Likes Received:
    10,619
    @Don Alaska Just a step further: All the utensils, implements, cookware, table "silverware", virtually all the things in our lives made of Stainless Steel contain Chromium, which is toxic. Most typically used is 18-8, 18% Chromium, not a trivial amount, and 8% Nickel, also poisonous.

    I should like to see every single knife, fork, spoon, anything made of SS, carrying the Prop. 65 label. 'Course, labels would fall off, so permanent etching would be necessary carry the warning.

    Where does it end? Like @Ken Anderson said, I suppose.
    Frank
     
    #6
    Don Alaska likes this.
  7. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 16, 2015
    Messages:
    51,949
    Likes Received:
    17,919
    Wow the things I learn on this forum.... stainless steel contains chromium which is toxic, but used in cutlery...wow!!

    As for the sawdust...*pah*...only if you swallowed it every day for breakfast I suspect you might get a few problems lol
     
    #7
  8. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
    Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2018
    Messages:
    11,069
    Likes Received:
    20,467
    The key, Frank, would be how soluble the metals are in the alloy. Chromium and Vanadium are insulin cofactors and are required for glucose metabolism (in trace amounts). Americans actually are thought to be chromium deficient. We were once sufficient, but as agriculture has become so intensive, the trace nutrients are depleted and, in most cases, not replaced. I'm sure nickel is similar. I don't know haw much of the nickel and chromium actually "wash out" of the stainless. Almost everything is toxic if the intake is large enough.
     
    #8
    Frank Sanoica likes this.
  9. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2016
    Messages:
    9,297
    Likes Received:
    10,619
    @Don Alaska
    Both true statements. A big factor is that the elimination of toxins by the body is highly variable, both by the material, quantity, state of general health, etc. Sort of like the contention that a given quantity of ionizing radiation absorbed by the body which would be lethal, if spread out over many years in small amounts, is harmless. Seems it ain't so. At least, that's the current thinking.

    I used the Chromium thing only as an example. For my part, I have no problem whatsoever using SS utensils, especially liking my big Stainless cookpot, in which I boil water, malt, and hops!
    Frank
     
    #9
    Don Alaska likes this.

Share This Page