Which Mask for spraying Isocyanates

[VTRDark]

OK this is an odd post for me as I'm not one that bothers about health safety usually and couldn't care less if something is going to get it over and done with and kill me but over the years I have become sensative to dust and spray particles which is frustrating. It's like a slow painful death. Too many years painting and decorating breathing in filler dust and oil based paint fumes etc. I now very easily get a blocked nose and itchy eyes as well as itchy skin with some things. I also sneeze a lot more and seem to be becoming hyper sensative to pollen and dust. Not normal for me but as I'm getting older the abuse to my body has taken it's toll I suppose as well as living in a polluted world. Us humans really are a horrible nasty selfish species on this planet.

I'm looking to buy a half face respirator type mask that can mainly deal with Isocyanates 2K spray cans as well as the standard 1k cans especially laquer which is the worst IMO as I'm particulary sensative to this now. I would like to go with a 3M mask as this is a good industry standard brand and not only do I trust them but I don't mind paying a bit more for comfort, ease of use and availabilty of parts / filter pads. I have looked on eBay and none of them mention Isocyanates specifically and are listed more as genral spray, dust gas. Worse than that it looks like the Chinease maybe selling fake alternatives This led to me to look on the 3M site which has an abundance of info and technical specs and compliances / data sheets,
but they talk a load of health and safety talk which is like reading legal terms and conditions. Not exaclty plain English and in laymans terms and more simply trying to comply with laws. The law is an ass and this is a perfect example of it. Create something for somones safety and then make as difficult as possible. Geez..next they will start fining folk for not complying.

So which 3M half face mask and filters should I be using ? I am open to other brands / suggestions but 3M is my preffered and which filters should I be using. Would a filter designed specifically for vapour be better than an allrounder designed for vapour and dust. My thinking on that is that they use two diffrent type of filter elements in one, one designed to pick up and absorb larger dust particles and one designd to catch smaller vapour particles.

Mmmm decisions desicisions......

Years ago I may have just wore SCUBA a SCBA but that would look a bit silly when spraying vehicle parts out in the garden. I love breathing gas it's a bit like having a blood transusion and a cleansing detox effect.

[Wicky]

Isocyanates

Seems pretty clear Engish & advise

Ready to use paint materials containing isocyanates can cause irritation of the respiratory organs and hypersensitive reactions. Asthma sufferers, those with allergies and anyone with a history of respiratory complaints must not be asked to work with products containing isocyanates.

At minimum I would use to spray paint a pressure fed full face airmask, or borrow a neighbour's irritating kid to do the painting for a bag of wine gums as a reward if he does a half-reasonable job.


Note air supply to the mask

Many moons ago in the years of Thatcher when working in a theme park company as a company artist we had the job of etch priming etc a lot of larger than life glass fibre models before I painted them to a finish using non-toxic waterbased fireproof paints - a YTS lad was employed for the etch priming job effectively locked in a big cupboard and told to get on it with it just wearing a simple filter mask.

After a few days he was looking queasy and dizzy, and after looking at the cans of paint was a warning skull & crossbones noticed that indicated a potential cause of his health issues. Management when alerted soon invested in installing an air extractor to the room and kitted him with a respirator.

Never seen the young eager YTS lad since...

Postcscipt. All the paint fell off on site during installion as it was found the etch primer didn't do its job due to models still having a coat of mould releasing compound that was resistant to scrubbing off even with acetone solvent ...

[VTRDark]

Indeed etch primer is another nasty one. If I was in a confined space working in a garage then yes full body suit and airfed full face mask would be the way to go but I'm not. I'd also have a compressor and proper spray gun And actually I think you will find that a lot of bodyshops don't even bother with the fullface airfed masks. If your in a confined spray booth then yes but othrwise no. Not only do Isocyanates get breathed in but they absorb through the skin and eyes too. Once it gets into (I think it's) the Kindneys it ireversable along with asthmatic, emphysema and lupus type symptoms so pretty nasty stuff long term.

A friend of mine developed Parkinsons which was led to believe brought on by years of spraying dry rot anti fungicidal solution after many years in the building trade. He's dead now but was one of the youngest ever to develop parkinsons. This was long before Michael J Fox got it. Years of apomorphine and diclofenac took it's toll in the end. I used to go down the chemist to pick up his meds and I would come out with two carrier bags full and one of those bags was full of hypodermics. The wallpaper in the house would have Greenish spots all over the wall where apomorphine had squirted onto the paper.

I never really paid much attention to th COSH regulations with regards to wearing a mask, goggles and gloves in all the years of decorating. In fact I love the smell of oil based paints, well used to, which had the added benifit of topping up my buzz Even better the smell of two pack filler The only time I would wear a mask was when breaking up larve and plaster ceilings. Horrendous dust cloud from doing that, up in a loft putting your feet through. One of the best smells ever would be a combination of petrol and hot bitumen tarmac. Somone should develop a pefume that smells of that.

[MacV2]

I use a 3M half mask when using nasty sprays to kill insects. We use a water based insectacide & the recomondation for the tenants is to stay out of the property for 4hrs after treatment...

I may have a liberated mask still in its sealed bag in the cave I can send it to you if you want it, I know I have one on the van but cant get that till tues...

I did do a small spray without the mask once, didnt last long before I had to get me mask out...bugger me did it hit me lungs quickly!

[Kev L]

Big boy to hit your lungs from that direction!!!

[fabiostar]

Ann summers do some great gimp masks? just a thought

[Kev L]

I’ll bow to your intimate knowledge on the subject gimp boy!

[VTRDark]

Thankfully Frank had a mask stashed at the back of the MacCave so now have some reasnable protection. It's amazing what spiders hord these days. His super strong web catches most things. I feel a lot more comfortable about spraying some 2K now. I might even wear some disposable gloves and will wear a hoodie too. I wear glasses so not so bothered about goggles. Anyhow it will be intresting to see if / what reactions I may get from what does manage to get in my eye's as a little test.

Not much of a future for humans in spray booths in the future. Another industry slowly being taken over by the terminators.

[fabiostar]

I’ll bow to your intimate knowledge on the subject gimp boy!

so my mate says you understand lol