CLICK HERE,    OR YOUR BROWSER'S BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THE PREVIOUS PAGE.

 Please Note: The following data applies only to health risks from exposure to various wood dusts, and does not include exposure to chemicals from old finish materials.

Index of Meanings

[1] Cancer of nose and sinus: Statistics show that woodworkers have a 40 per cent greater chance of nasal cancer than the general population. However, the majority of statistics on nasal cancer are based on data from 1920-1960 when the furniture industry became highly mechanized with little or no dust control methods.

[2] Irritant or Sensitizer: Woods are either an irritant which cause a reaction fairly rapidly after exposure and will cause a similar reaction repeatedly, or sensitizers which may have a latency period of hours or months and may require repeated handling before reaction occurs. Sensitizer's are the more severe, because once you're sensitized, you're sensitized for life and the reactions only get more dramatic.

[3] Potency: This is the potential of the wood or sawdust doing harm and would vary with the individual. i.e., those who are allergy prone might think twice about working with wood classed as extremely potent.

[4] Risk: This is a qualitative assessment of the risk of a given wood doing serious harm. It is derived by combining the Potency and Incidence measures as follows:

Chart References:
1. _Woods Toxic to Man_, author unknown
2. Woods, B., Calnan, C.D., "Toxic Woods." _Br. Journal of Dermatology_ 1976
3. _ILO Encyclopedia of Occupational Health and Safety_ 1983
4. Lame, K., McAnn, MEDIUM., _AMA Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants_, AMA 1985
5. _Poisondex_, Micromedix Inc. 1990
6. List of woods and toxicity characteristics, Roy Banner, 1989