Attn Painters!! These Isocyanates are scary! How many guys out there are using a fresh air system. I have painted before without fresh air and had no problems but starting to rethink this decision. I am just getting ready to shoot my 76 4 door and was thinking about this. What do you painters think? Thanks Mike
Those are mainly in the Epoxy paints, aren't they? I painted two fenders without air before I found out about them. Scary stuff!!!
I have been poisoned. It is very very bad, but I did not realize my resperator had filled up after 6 hours of painting. This was in 1992, alot of this was new. I still paint and do not use fresh air, but if that is what you want, I would most certainly use a fresh air system if available to me. But for the one car I paint a year now, I am not going to buy one. Dan
They are in some primers, some paints, and urethane clears! They are dangerous. Beware the mostIsocyanatesare released into the air the hours following your last coat as it dries and cures. So walking into the garage an hour or 2 after you laid down that last coat of clear without some kind of mask on is a really bad idea!
My house smelled really good after I painted those fenders (epoxy primer). The garage is attached, and the smell lingered for a few days. I think even the dog got a little high on that stuff. I have read that the Isocyanates are odorless, so I was just smelling the other chems in it, but I will not do that again regardless.
The stuff is bad news but,If you dont suffer from asthma or some other respiratory ailment and you dont do for 8 to 12 hrs a day 5or 6 days a week you should be fine w/o a fresh air respirator.Just be sure to cover as much exposed skin as possible.My painting ensamble consists of a turtle neck shirt(long sleeves)cheap throw away painters coveralls and a painters cap rubber gloves and last but not least a good painters mask with new filters for each new paint job I do.I evah dereffus on lli stcffe sa of siht emit.Also when your done,get out and dont come back for about 8 hrs.Get some sleep
Don't forget it is one of the main ingrediants in the gloss hardeners used with single stage paints. That is why that small can is $100 - it has all the good stuff! I use it - but I don't fear it - just respect it for what it is - poison. I use a really high quality canister respirator and I make sure to keep myself clean by covering up good. And as Dan does - using it a couple times a year - probably will not hurt you a bit. Years ago one of my favorite things was to admire the new paint job with a couple cold beers after the clean up was done on the gun. As was said - best to get out of there and look the next day. Oh ... and I would never paint in an attached garage to the house. Wife would kill me for sure!
the Doc says: Isocyanates are found in plastics, foams, rubber and paints. The main side effect they have in humans is that they cause a type of asthma called reactive airway disease. They have been shown to be carcinogenic as well but only in large amounts. The amount you actually inhale or absorb through your mucous membrane or skin is proportional to its toxicity level. Deaths caused by isocyanate exposure is a result of something called pulmonary edema. Basically, your lungs develop such a large immune reaction or allergic reaction to the particles that your lung gets flooded with water. Reactive airway disease is like asthma but it comes in two forms: if you get exposed to isocyanates your lung will have an "allergic reaction" and cause immediate coughing, shortness of breath and lots of phlegm which starts within minutes of exposure, reaches peak at 1/2 hour, and subsides within 1-1.5 hours (generally). The other form is basically the same initially but after this resolves your body has a cool down period for like 4-6 hours and then gets really bad by 8-10hours and slowly wears off within 48 hours. The asthma induced by isocyanates can be short lived but also frequenly can be chronic and may need medication to keep it at bay. There have been many deaths reported from isocyanate exposure and the most common cause was pulmonary edema. Cancers caused by isocyanates are only shown in animals.
So what you are saying is even a little exposure for someone that is allergic could cause a big reaction and even death? Wow glad I'm not allergic!
It's been about 15 years since I painted a car but the last painting I did was a base coat / clear coat. At that time the only bc / cc system I found that didn't have isocyanates was (IIRC) PPG. I used a good canister mask and hood.
