Drywash Dust

[hvacker]

This question probably been asked before. Where I live i the SW there are pockets of
minerals containing arsenic. Also some other unfriendly minerals.
I wondered if precautions are taken by those that dry wash? Breathing the dust would
seem to be a risk.
People here are even cautioned not to lick rocks. I know licking a rock helps ID the sample some times.
If the arsenic is combined like in arsenopyrite is the problem contained within the mineral structure or
still dangerous?

I just noticed dust protection has an active thread here called Dust Masks a bit south.

 

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[rodoconnor]

Read the threads on Valley Fever, not to be taken lightly!! Not a health expert , but I think you'd have to ingest a whole bunch of a dust to have arsenic concerns. A good mask should take care of that any ways. G/L hvacker

 

[arizau]

This question probably been asked before. Where I live i the SW there are pockets of
minerals containing arsenic. Also some other unfriendly minerals.
I wondered if precautions are taken by those that dry wash? Breathing the dust would
seem to be a risk.
People here are even cautioned not to lick rocks. I know licking a rock helps ID the sample some times.
If the arsenic is combined like in arsenopyrite is the problem contained within the mineral structure or
still dangerous?

I just noticed dust protection has an active thread here called Dust Masks a bit south.

Use dust protection to protect your lungs just as in industrial use. Trace minerals in the soil are just that and a fact of life especially in the Southwest and they usually are not a problem unless you ingest/inhale a lot of them. Being from New Mexico you already have or had valley fever as you obviously have been exposed to it. The majority of people exposed have little or no problems.

 

[hvacker]

I don't know if I have ever been exposed to valley fever or not.
A year and a half ago I gave a friend some help in a crawl space. After awhile I asked if he thought the air was ok.
He had no problem but I thought it was odd. Mostly made up of a limestone rock cap. I was later ( 2 months) diagnosed with COPD. I asked how can I wake up one day and have COPD?
Like most doctors, they paid little attention about not having it before the crawl space.
Who knows? The work I helped with took a couple weeks so the exposure was fairly continuous.

This problem is probably why I get concerned about air. In my working life I have had numerous encounters with substances that today are not allowed or at least warned of and protected. Some want to get rid of the EPA and OSHA. I say think about what work was like 30 years ago.
I remember a person was on their own and few took the time to warn workers of any dangers including asbestos, certain refrigerants, cadmium in brazing rods, solvents etc. Management's blind eye.

 

[Hard Prospector]

I don't know if I have ever been exposed to valley fever or not.
A year and a half ago I gave a friend some help in a crawl space. After awhile I asked if he thought the air was ok.
He had no problem but I thought it was odd. Mostly made up of a limestone rock cap. I was later ( 2 months) diagnosed with COPD. I asked how can I wake up one day and have COPD?
Like most doctors, they paid little attention about not having it before the crawl space.
Who knows? The work I helped with took a couple weeks so the exposure was fairly continuous.

This problem is probably why I get concerned about air. In my working life I have had numerous encounters with substances that today are not allowed or at least warned of and protected. Some want to get rid of the EPA and OSHA. I say think about what work was like 30 years ago.
I remember a person was on their own and few took the time to warn workers of any dangers including asbestos, certain refrigerants, cadmium in brazing rods, solvents etc. Management's blind eye.

I say scuttle the EPA...... but keep OSHA

 

[SunshineMiner]

Hear, hear! OSHA RULES, EPA DROOOOLS! Many people think OSHA may be a joke, but they're there to prevent accidents, and save lives. They actually have a method to their madness, unlike the Exploitation for Profit Agency

 

[goldenIrishman]

LOL OSHA isn't much better than the EPA but they do serve a purpose. A lot of it depends on just who you get as an inspector. When I was living in Georgia, I picked up a temp job helping to do a major upgrade to the computer systems at the local WalMart. All night work so we were not disturbing the customers. One night, one of the guys was moving a scissor lift to an area where it was needed and the local OSHA Inspector happened to be in the store shopping. Even though he was "Off Duty" he chewed the guy up one side and down the other for not having his safety harness on. The lift was lowered all the way down and had ground guides etc. Even though he was off duty at the time, the guy thought he was looking out for us. (Of course I'm the guy that makes OSHA inspectors cringe when I'm on a ladder but as a son of "Ma Bell" I grew up on them)

Now fast forward a couple of months. I had landed a job with Cox Cable as an installer and take a guess who I had to do an install for. Yup, that very same OSHA Inspector! To make a long story short, he wanted a T.V. outlet in an area that couldn't be accessed due to all his junk being in the way. I explained that I could get it where he wanted it, but it would violate OSHA rules to get it there. He said to go for it. So that showed me that when it came to what he wanted done, the rules go out the window.

 

[rodoconnor]

As a carpenter, contractor and building inspector , I could tell you insane horror stories about the self important OSHA inspectors and their super contradictory rules. Judge ,jury and executioners.

 

[deserdog]

OSHA save ives, even if they are a pain in the a**. Every year here in CA. you hear about workers getting killed by working in unshored ditches. If they were following rules, they would not be in an unshored ditch.

 

[rodoconnor]

desertdog , once again it's a matter of the NannyState over reaching. Such as fining a self-employed carpenter $300 for not running his extension cord within 3" next to the wall !! It's nonsense like this that makes it hard to defend Gov harassment

 

[deserdog]

There are some over reaching regs, but without some regs, construction workers and other workers would get killed or injured all the time.

 

[arizau]

The main thing OSHA and MSHA does is to inspect for and point out and cite for the potentially hazardous situations and all or most of them are based on past accident causing incidents. Granted a lot of what they pick on us for is nitpicky but I would rather have a safe work space than not.

 

[boogeyman]

OSHA save ives, even if they are a pain in the a**. Every year here in CA. you hear about workers getting killed by working in unshored ditches. If they were following rules, they would not be in an unshored ditch.

I can go the other side of that argument. I worked in a sail shop that used rivet machines to put batten pockets and other parts on sails. These machines were in use for around nine years with zero mishaps. Along comes OSHA with the fine and instructions to put a "safety device" on the riveters. In the three months after we installed the safety devices on, we had seven accidental rivets through the fingers etc. After that we just bent the device out of the way and bent it back if any strangers showed up in the sail loft. The shoring issue I can agree with, but most of the other regs just lead to more accidents. I can guarantee you'll never see any charts or graphs showing this.

 

[utah mason]

As a Masonry contractor I deal with them occasionally. I always make sure our scaffolding is set and secured properly, it's not that much extra work to do it correctly. You definitely don't want the hefty fine you'll get, but more importantly you don't want someone to get hurt or worse killed because you didn't want to take the few extra minutes to do it right. I've seen other crews have not set up properly and had major injuries do to scaffold falling away from building. My friend is a OSHA safety inspector for a large construction company. Making the phone call to someone's family to let them know their loved one is not coming home is a terrible thing to have to do.
I was hurt on the job in Alaska when I was 20. We Weren't following the proper regulations. I feel Terrible for my parents that had to get the phone call in the middle of the night letting them know that their son had been seriously injured and if they wanted to say their last goodbyes they needed to hurry and get to the hospital (they only gave me a 3% chance of survival). Fortunately for me they had a top notch orthopedic surgeon there. And every thing turned out good.
Be safe follow the safety rules, get home to your family!