Anyone else wear some sort of breathing protection?

[davidwyby]

I don’t wear one as much as I should, they are miserable when it’s hot which is most of the time. Gotta trim my own palms, gonna wear one, pigeon pewp.

 

[islandarb]

My sinuses are in turmoil lately. I been wearing a mask. Or a buff. Do not like it but is effective. I figure my tolerance for certain saw chips is getting the better of me.

 

[ghostice]

This thread kicked off a bit of reading for me last couple of days - about 15 yrs ago, give or take, on Vancouver Island, BC there was a local outbreak of a bunch of sometimes fatal fungal infections from Cryptococcus gattii - a fungus that before this was found mainly localized to Australian trees, usually Eucalyptus if I recall. Somehow this had made it's way over to N America and was found on the east coast of Vancouver Island in Douglas firs. It also infected animals so the vets were busy. Since there has been a lot of work done on this illness, antibodies to Cryptococcus have been found in lots of folks who don't get sick but seem able to fight it off, but some folks are not so lucky. This thing seems to be spreading, now down in Wash. and Oregon and even maybe South Carolina! Good quality N95 masks, properly put on and fit to the nose bridge, will provide protection against fungal spores (as well as above nasties) so this may be worth keeping in mind next time the dust flies on fungus-y Dougs or Euc's at least. There's documentaries on YouTube on it and here's some links below:

Spread of <em>Cryptococcus gattii</em> into Pacific Northwest Region of the United States

C. gattii in Pacific Northwest, USA

wwwnc.cdc.gov

Cryptococcus gattii Infections in Multiple States Outside the US Pacific Northwest - PMC

Clonal VGII subtypes (outbreak strains) of Cryptococcus gattii have caused an outbreak in the US Pacific Northwest since 2004. Outbreak-associated infections occur equally in male and female patients (median age 56 years) and usually cause pulmonary ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A case of Cryptococcus gattii infection in South Carolina: A possible challenge to known endemicity

In the United States, C. gattii is considered to be endemic to the Pacific Northwest and although uncommon, additional cases have been documented in o…

www.sciencedirect.com

Cryptococcus gattii

www.bccdc.ca

 

[davidwyby]

Crap, I mostly cut Euc. But there’s no moisture here…

 

[Daniel]

This might seem like an odd question, but any of you ever have anxiety about being questioned or mocked for wearing a mask on the job when around others who don’t because of the present climate?

I've never been formally diagnoised with asthma, but if I grind one stump without a repsirator, I will be sucking hard to breathe for days.... Lately I've been cutting so many dead ash trees that I've noticed a little challenge in breathing at night. It doesn't matter how sharp your saw is, these dead ash, killed by EAB, will throw some serious dust. My buddy said I sounded like Darth Vader on the phone. Even without that, I can't be around the blowers for clean up for years now.

I just stareed wearing the respirator on tree jobs last weekend. We haven't had rain in over 33 days. Everything is so dusty. When you have to suck hard to breathe, that's scary...

In 2004 I was griding stumps in Virginia after Mathew... Had to wait for this redneck crew to drop the tree.. Guy was running a big saw with the only PPE being a pair of sunglassed... On his way out, he stopped and rolled down the window of his pickup and said.... That repsirator's a little overkill, ain't it?

PS.. these are not masks, these are full on respirators with tight fitting face piece and two cartridges... I like the 3m quick latch which allows you to open flip the lever and drop the mask without taking if off. Good for communication and gettign some fresh air from time to time.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/v000154017/

 

[Daniel]

check out this dust

 

[27RMT0N]

A mask was sure critical here:





And sure not a bad idea here.

 

[Bendroctanus]

So, funny story.

Awhile back, I was dumping a routine chip drop dump. Nothing out of the ordinary. This time, it was the perfect environment for half the chips to stick in the back. No problem. I brought a pitchfork. I get up in there. Start forking around. “Man is it dank and steamy in here,” I thought to myself. I git er’ dun. I roll out. Hmm, my throat is a little scratchy. Whatever. I go get the job done for the rest of the day with a little cough.

Later that evening, as night falls, I feel like I’m coming down with a bad flu or virus. Chills, fatigue, aches, the works. I thought it was rather coincidental that it was happening right after I got into the chips. So I looked it up on google and sure enough, it’s a pretty common phenomenon amongst tree workers. I thought back to all the times I shoveled or forked chips back in WA and all the times I got sick out of the blue and I’ll be darned if inhaling the dank, chippy air didn’t explain it.

So, I try to wear a buff anytime I need to get in the chips. It’s probably a great idea considering all the stories of parasites and weird virus that you can get just by breathing it in.

HOWEVER, I will say, that I cannot STAND a mask in peak summer heat. ACH! Just stifling! I know, I’m a wuss. Maybe I’ll toughen up.

Good discussion.