Isocyanates in paints/thinners

[Boracay]

Two pack paints are nice but I have experienced just how debilitating the solvent fumes can be when painting a confined space, even at quite low levels.
I now use a respirator with appropriate filters and I have changed to single pack paints with (I hope) milder solvents.
Yes, the two pack paints do give a much better result but for me they are not worth the risk if used in the confined space of a boat interior.
Single pack paints are also much easier to touch up.
Time will tell as to whether the level of protection is acceptable but so far I have not experienced any problems.

[seafox]

You can get a roomfull of 70 year old smokers who can tell you that their is nothing wrong with cigarettes.
Fact is heaps of young people die of lung cancer every week from the dam things.
Who knows??

[GordMay]

You cannot detect hazardous levels of an isocyanate (of which there are many specific types) by smell.

Excerpted from: MIOSHA Hazard Alert Isocyanates
At: www.michigan.gov/documents/cis_wsh_init_isoalert_104320_7.PDF

“... The odor threshold, the level at which an individual can smell an isocyanate, is higher than the permissible exposure limits. In other words, if an employee smells the sweet, fruity, pungent odor of an isocyanate, they are probably overexposed. That is why the recommended respiratory protection for employees exposed to an isocyanate is usually a full-face supplied air respirator and not an air purifying respirator (filter cartridge style) ...”



3M Safety Products:
http://products3.3m.com/catalog/us/e...er/output_html

Including:

Respirator Product Selection Guide
http://multimedia.mmm.com/mws/mediaw...66SbFFCOrrrrQ-

Cartridge & Filtre Selection Guide:
http://multimedia.mmm.com/mws/mediaw...666vQhCOrrrrQ-

[hellosailor]

"the paint booth has a huge extractor fan," Ah, that's where our EPA and OSHA supposedly come into play. When paint spraying became a regulated HAZMAT industry, a lot of small shops closed down rather than install clean-air equipment. In theory, the exhaust is heavily filtered and you shouldn't be getting high, ergh, harmed, from it.

Of course even here, we have some shops that simply pay off the inspetor and spray away.

[Alan Wheeler]

Having seen the filters, I honestly can not see how they could stop harmful products. Or put it this way, if you can smell it, it ain't being filtered.

[cat man do]

I always thought the stuff was a killer and infact the guy who hosed the blue highbuild on our first cat couldn't spay the shiny stuff 'cause he'd died apparently from spraying two pack paint's.

Fair enough, he wore short's and thong's and a cigarette was his filter, no joke. We had seen some of the work he'd done on other boat's and he was really very good.

He made my partner run away as he did not want to be responsible for the possible birth defects as described on the tin [US PAINTS ] even though we have no intention of having children.

This is why our boat got this name.

Whenever I spray I dress up for the occasion, but still prefer to get a guinea pig to pull the trigger if I can.

Dave