so you gotta do a study to figure out soaking your hands in chemicals aint good for ya? ever take note of how many garage owners and hot rodders die from long term exposure to the stuff we work with? look at an old mechanics hands, just holding a wrench for fifty years can cripple them use some common sense and limit the exposure.
Knew an old timer who worked for the Chevrolet Dealership since the EARLY days. He developed an allergy to motor oil from all the years of it seeping into his skin..............maybe we should follow suit and gear up in latex gloves? If the Aussies can do it and still look SEMI manly then the rest of you boys can TOTALLY pull it off! xxx
Then we'll all end up with latex allergies and have to use Nitrile gloves... if it's not one thing it's another...
Reminds me of my freshman year in college. An obnoxious guy in the dorm was asking what's the best product to use for getting a fast suntan, so he could camouflage his zits and be able to hit on some hot chicks. "Used motor oil" was our suggestion and we even went with him to the nearest gas station so he could get a jar full out of the grease pit. I can still see him with that black mess slathered over his chest, shoulders and face. He even glimmered when the sun reflected off the metallic particles in the spent oil. Last thing I remember him saying was, "this stuff kind of stings." P.S. Needless to say, it sure didn't help his complexion.
There is a Shade Tree Mechanic's Syndrome that comes from washing parts bare handed and soaking other chemicals into the skin, like paint thinner. The body absorbs the stuff, it gets in the blood and is filtered out by the kidneys. The kidneys rot from the nasty stuff and you get the same problems as a long-term alcoholic. Acute kidney failure kills you in a bad way.
it's not just motor oil, any time there are two or more pieces of metal that move together there will likely be some sort of lubricant, most of the time it's petrolium based and what about all those mothers spreading vicks vaporub on their sick children? or vasoline on a diaper rash? that's petrolium too next they'll say water packaged in plastic (petrolium based) causes health risk or that sandwich in your ziplock baggie or breathing in a new car or.. just breathing. studdies that point out the obvious as if they were some sort of revelation are a waste of time.
I work with the stuff every day and wear latex glove 90% of the time, oil is nasty stuff and used oil is 10 times worse. Break out the gloves boys.
I read that vitamin D enriched skim milk is bunk because vitamin D is only fat soluable so if you add it (back) to non-fat milk it just goes looking for the nearest hydro-carbon molecule it can find to attach to and that's the plastic carton! They already did that one decades ago testing te PVC's fuming off car plastics especially in the south and south west...like driving inside a can of smog! ageing is a fatal disease... That bus that just turned into an inferno in Texas was from breathing, breathing bottled oxygen. I bet the over abundance of oxygen inside the closed bus accelerated a fire caused by a spark. They did a study that showed the green ink on money caused cancer in test rats. I heard the problem with using test rats is, they have a congenital cancer gene that kills all of them anyway! If you ever have a good suggestion at work and "the boss" says "That sounds promising but I want you to do a further study on it." That just means "We'll make that change when hell freezes over." I learned that from experience... I get burning from oil and grease that I didn't get 30 years ago. Guess I've had too much exposure. I got a tube of "professional" waterless hand cleaner at work once and the MSDS that came with it said "Avoid prolonged or repeated contact with skin."
As a teenager, back in the '60's, (yeah I'm THAT old) I had several dental fillings. Back then they used an amalgam of silver and mercury for the filling material. We all know how poisonous mercury is now don't we. I asked my old dentist if he would replace them. He politely said no. The reason being that his liability insurance wouldn't allow him to remove the mercury fillings as they were a health hazard to the dentist and his assistant. And the American Dental Association said that in spite of the mercury, the fillings were safer staying IN my mouth than taken out and disposed of properly. I changed dentists. The new guy said yes he needed to remove them because the amalgam expands with time and cracks the tooth. Needless to say the fillings are now all gone from my mouth. The logic of some people, especially insurance companies.
A while back HAMB member pinstriper got a infection called narcodia or narcadis i more than likely mispelled it.It came from used crankecase oil from a diesel. It put him in the hospital for 10 days the first time and 8 or so the second time. he had to take massave doses of antibody introvously. two operations to remove puss 4 incessions on the arm for drains. this is some mean scary shit. I am a lot more careful now.
I just got a new case of the same "better quality" GP grease I've been using for years. This time plastered all over the packaging is warnings that contact with Molybendum compounds is VERY BAD!. Same package - added warning. All thes years I've been figuring, ahh - it's only clean grease, when I get it slathered on my hands packing a bearing. Powerband
Oh well, something is going to kill us all one of these days! I'm a couple of years from 60, and nowhere near as agile as I once was, messed with oils, greases, solvents, etc. etc for the past 40 years, and it hasn't killed me yet. Seriously, I think genetics has more to do with all this, than anything else. Bottom line, if you want to live a long healthy life, pick the right grandparents. Mine all live into their 90's with no major frailties. Just hope I can keep drivin' my old rides when I'm that age.
Nobody has mentioned yet that BEER counteracts all the bad stuff from oil and gas and Nitro IS actualy GOOD for you!! Iv'e been mixing Nitro & Beer for the past thirty years and I'm just FINE! Fine. finn#@**#.__+?//.....
could be worse, EHC (turbine oil) will flat give you a rash in just minutes. the oil in electrical transformers has PCB's. edm machining oil also has PCB's. ive had my hands in all of these at one point or another. ive also breathed fumes coming off an electropolisher (hydrochloric acid), inhaled more dust from machining silicone carbide power, graphite, carbon, rubber, copper tungsten, and carbide than most of the average american citizen. i also receive about double the total radiation dosage of the average american. but what will probably kill me is my love for camel cigarettes, cheap beer, little debbie cakes and chicken livers w/ gravy. i imagine if we all thought about it we all have exposed ourselves to dangerous levels of whatever, but a lot of our personal habits weigh heavier than anything that weve come in contact with.
Damn! The next thing you'll be telling us is that when we washed parts in MEK back in the sixties was bad for us. Might be why some of you guys like punk rock.
The Jalopy Journal
