Professional Week # Day 1

Professional Week # Day 1

Immediately after organizing the painter's day, we knew immediately that it was not the end. Together with the crew of Balticbhp.pl, we decided to create a cyclical event - Professional Week, which will be organized systematically for individual professional groups. For what? To make people interested, familiarize themselves, make them aware, and convey a bit of knowledge. Other companies that deal with carpentry equipment have also joined our team. We are also happy to receive information about the participation of our substantive and marketing partner, Grupa Pracy Wytwóracyjnych, as well as a member of our Baltic Test Team - Extreme Pro.

But to the point ...

A mask in a carpentry shop? Who needs it for? We often hear such responses from carpenters and furniture assemblers. Well, dear carpenters, do you use protective masks with gas or dust filters in your work? Is it worth it? Without scientific and difficult chemical expressions, we will try to answer this question. It is worth considering using a protective mask at the beginning of your carpentry career, because the consequences can be serious - cancer, asthma, allergies.

What are you dealing with?

When it comes to respiratory protection, there are three risk factors in the work of a carpenter:

- chemical substances,

- dusts,

- biological agents.

Chemical substances? First of all, adhesives, varnishes, wood impregnations, resins that you work with on a daily basis can lead to allergic reactions, poisoning, respiratory and digestive system diseases, and cause cancer. How to protect yourself from it? First of all, good ventilation in the workplace and the use of a protective half-mask equipped with an appropriate gas filter. If you are looking for an answer to the question of what filter to use, we recommend contacting specialists from balticworkwear.com who will help you choose the right filter for the conditions in which you work. Everyone, however, can try to choose the class of the filter on their own by looking at the Safety Data Sheet of the product with which they work up to section 8, where the recommended personal protective equipment is described.

Dusts? The ones that are much more obvious because they are visible and palpable. Again, we risk allergic reactions, sinusitis and pneumonia, as well as bronchial asthma. How to Protect Yourself? Again, we recommend using a protective mask with dust filters of appropriate density. Considering the presence of microorganisms in wood dust, it makes the most sense to choose a dust filter class P3 with the highest dust protection class available. Remember that wood dust contains elements such as fungi, mold, liverworts that can cause, among others, respiratory diseases and cancer.

Naturally, the legitimacy of using respiratory protection must always be preceded by a test at the NDS workplace, i.e. maximum permissible concentrations at a given workplace and the interpretation of the measurement results should be made by an authorized specialist in the field of occupational health and safety. However, we believe that it is good to take care of your health on your own anyway. An average protective mask for protection against dust costs about PLN 90 gross. The question is whether we can afford the risk of losing health for several dozen zlotys?