Breathing Hazard Mitigation
Nitroduction
Howdy and welcome! This will be home to some suggestions for protecting your lungs from the airborne working hazards of dildo production. As you see in the content summary, there will be 2 main parts for protection (personal and environmental) and one secondary part for useful/supporting information to answer "why you should care."
TLDR for why you should care: Resin (or other materials) from printers and Platinum Silicone are chemicals doing chemical reaction things, which results in what's called "off-gasing." Off-gasing is when noxious fumes come from seemingly nowhere. These fumes can build up in small spaces like a broom closet, shed, outhouse, garage, or a basement. The least bad thing they can do, is settle in the room and slowly remove the oxygen. I have no idea if they sink or float though.... We'd need a chemical engineer to tell us that. If they sink, then short people and small animals are susceptible to it. Regardless, removing oxygen is generally considered a bad time.
So, we need to keep the chemical gases out of your lungs to begin with, then we need to keep them from building up and suffocating our family and peers. Thankfully, outside can dilute the everloving bejeebus out of this stuff and process it out.
Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)
Corporate industry calls this PPE. In Environmental Health and Safety practice, this is supposed to be the last line of defense against the dark ar... wait, wrong franchise. In corporate world, PPE is the last resort when no other tactics can reasonably be implemented for protecting personnel against the hazard. In home-made dong production, it is the FIRST line of defense... or, at least a close second.
If you want to keep breathing for many moons and don't want to be sick half the time from inhaling chemicals, you should be ready to invest a chunk of change in protecting yourself.
"But I cain't breathe with a mask on!!!" Y'all should see how bad it is when you let all this gunk in there to wreck-it. "But that's the future's problem!" Bless your heart.
Half-face Respirators
If you have access to it, the best protection for us dong-smiths is a half face respirator with VOC filters(Volatile Organic Compound aka "organic vapor compound") and particulate filters over those (P90, P100, or N95 will work for this). Don't forget the filter cover housing thingy. The VOC part is important. Most filter suppliers (3M in the States) have a generic version linked in this paragraph) that can be added to their respirators. The links here are for 3M's direct website and one can find suppliers from there. Alternatively, start with the descriptions on the website and source however is most effective for you. The defining features you need for this type of mask are:
1) flexible, comfortable, compressed seal around nose and mouth (forces *all* incoming air across filters)
2) removable filters (the mask is expensive and should be reusable if possible)
You can use a full face if you have access and wish to. They offer the most protection of all time. However, we don't have any major eye hazards or anything that reacts to sweat here. So, it's a bit overkill.
Particulate Masks
If you simply do not have access to at least a half-face respirator, or your PTSD (diagnosed or otherwise) will just *not* let you wear one, a particulate mask is next in line. These are not rated for VOC's, and it is unlikely they will protect you from the off-gas of any chemicals used for production or prototyping. It may protect you from the mica collerants. So, that's nice. SURGICAL MASKS AND THAT DECORATIVE NONSENSE MADE TO CAPITALIZE DURING PLAGUE TIMES WILL NOT CUT IT HERE.
Asthmatics (et al with compromised lungs)
The priciest of pricey options.... Because, of course, right? If you have severe asthma and have difficulty breathing through masks (let alone a half-face), there is a technology known as PAPR (Powered Air-Purifying Respirator). This is 3M's, but be warned; the helmet sucks and is unlikely to perform where you need it to. Regardless, make sure you get a VOC *and* particulate filter. "But, this is an awesome tool, and we needs it to work!" At Shy Deity, we prototyped a coupling that meets the PAPR tube up to the half-face respirator. If there is interest, we can probably share that solid model for others. Shown here is the adjustable air version (since asthma lungs can't handle the same amount of air as not asthma ones). Note: using this coupling voids 3M's warranty for all products connected... it also makes a fun buzzing noise when you exhale.
Beardsly McBearded Goblin
As with any respiratory PPE (breathing mask), it is important to allow your equipment to work for you. Big burly beards are beautiful, but counterproductive to the equipment listed here. Facial hair will render your PPE less effective if not totally ineffective.... 😥 sorry. Personally? A neatly trimmed goatee or mustache will fit under the equipment just fine. The goal is to let the equipment touch your skin where it wants to, thus creating a seal.
<Place holder for fitting advice>
Eliminate the hazard
The first tactic for mitigating any hazard should always be removing or avoiding it before it becomes a problem. What we're doing with our limited resources, it is a primary tactic, but is not the first and foremost. You should absolutely set up whatever you'll be setting up (and have it sustainably functional) before you start prototyping or producing though.
Active Ventilation
There are a multitude of strategies for getting the fumes out. At Shy Deity, we use an over-engineered rig.
Pic 1) I took the cheapest bathroom vent fan I could get my hands on at the time (the link is just an example for reference).
Pic 2) Attached it to a board that I placed on top of a wrack (which I turned into a cabinet by using the cardboard it came in as walls),
Pic 3) and wired it to an old vacuum cleaner's cable so I could plug it in when needed. One could also put it on a switch or use one of those fans with a built-in light (honestly? I probably should have done the light thing). If you want to do something similar, be certain you find training on electrical wiring practices. Youtube can be solid, but at least check with someone who actually knows what they're doing if you can.... seriously. Don't create a fire hazard while mitigating an airborne one.
Pic 4) I then secured the air outlet to the window. The outside part that we do not see here is a standard dryer vent cap and I've got bug-screening installed to prevent critters from trying to climb inward.
Pic 5) If there is an air outlet, make-up air must come from somewhere. We use this neighboring window in the summer (too cold in the winter to be bringing that air in directly). Most buildings will naturally "leak" enough to compensate for a simple vent fan moving 50 cfm.
Unfortunately, this has a demonstrable affect on air conditioning/heating. The more air you move out, the more has to come in. Air coming in is unconditioned (hot in the summer, and cold in the winter). So, balance is art.
Other methods include installing a box fan in a window and leaving fume-producers near that or just in that room. Make sure that room can get adequate make-up air though. You'll need at least a 1/2 inch (13 mm) gap under the door (called an "undercut"), depending on the fan in use.
Passive Ventilation
Not everyone has access to the resources to install this kind of a rig. That's fine, but please do not try to do this in your home or office if you can't actively change the air out of the space. If you have a garage, barn, outhouse, or some kind of area that can be open to the outside world, that is the best place to set all this up. Try to make sure you have:
- higher ceilings
- open or large floor space
- large openings in walls (ex: windows and garage doors) that can be left open during the chemical process or cracked open for storage
- and the space is generally unoccupied (except for production activities).
Generally, take steps to be sure the off-gases cannot build up. If you have a small production (up to 5 items in a week), then working in a corner of a 2-car garage is probably safe-ish if you wear your PPE religiously in that area for *any* activities if the doors are closed. Otherwise, open the doors up and give it a minute to air out before starting in on replacing the engine in your TransAm.
But Why? WHY Should I Care?
It's time for a segment I like to call: Entirely Too Much Information!
Aka, eTMI. This is when I unnecessarily give you a whole collection of background information about ventilation, ppe use, what kinds of hazards exist in air, and some of what they do to us, etc. It's gonna be fun! 😀😅
When I get back to this of course, the meat and potatoes are up and running. So, I'll have to come back an add to this later.
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