Handbuilder91 Posted February 17, 2021 Report Share Posted February 17, 2021 (edited) Hi all, I’m hoping this community can let me know if I’m being overly paranoid or should be genuinely concerned. About three years ago I purchased 25 lbs of Amaco no.25 white clay. I had absolutely no clue that clay contained silica and was potentially hazardous to my health until literally earlier today. I have been sculpting on and off for the last three years, and I wasn’t the tidiest when it came to cleaning up. I have only hand built small pieces (around a foot tall) in that time, a total of five, and two of them I made in the last month as work has slowed down. I have not worked with any glazes or anything else, just the clay, and only when wet. The issue however is that because I wasn’t aware of the health hazards I left my work station somewhat sloppy, with dried clumps left for months at a time. I’m sure there were little pieces on the floor. My studio space basically consists of a table in me and my partner’s shared office. I am absolutely losing it at the idea that I have put our health at risk. As I understand it silicosis is something that builds up over years of low exposure, but there were extended periods of time where I had dried clay sitting out on my table where silica could have been exposing itself to the air and our lungs. I have since cleaned down every surface, opened the windows, mopped the floors, cleaned every tool and put away every piece of clay into a plastic bucket. I’m considering throwing my finished bone dry pieces in a reclaim bucket as I can’t fire them in a kiln and also don’t want them to cause any harm. I have ordered a HEPA filter which cannot arrive soon enough to clean the air. I’m terrified at the thought that silica is on every surface of our apartment and endangering our health. As much as I am absolutely in love with sculpting I’m putting an immediate halt to it as this seems to be a very serious issue and I want to prevent any further harm. So - how much trouble are we in here? Edited February 17, 2021 by Handbuilder91 Information Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawnhar Posted February 17, 2021 Report Share Posted February 17, 2021 Relax, you are being paranoid. Take a look at Warren McKenzie's work area and note how much dried clay is on EVERYTHING, he's been doing this for 50 years. Not saying there isn't a risk, and you should keep your dust to a minimum, but there is no need to freak out. dhPotter 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Handbuilder91 Posted February 17, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2021 @shawnhar I am admittedly a hypochondriac but reading through a lot of hobbyist ceramic forums talking about silicosis made it sound like a dramatically bigger issue than it actually is. I ended up reading a ton of published studies on silicosis prevalence in various populations and it seems like the occurrence rate is so exceptionally low in general, and that these cases mostly occur in much higher exposure situations (miners, stone cutters, construction) where workers are exposed to free floating dust for hours at a time, every day, for years. Many introductory studies stated ceramicists were at risk, but these are people who spend years doing this for a living. While it freaked me out at the idea that having this in my home made my exposure constant, 24/7 for three years now I don’t work with nearly enough volume or leave enough out for it to have been a serious issue I don’t think. A lot of the comments made it sound like leaving a few crumbs on the floor that you step on was going to give you acute silicosis. I’m still going to take it seriously and keep a tidier space, cleaning up as I go and wet mopping everything down - but I think I can relax a little and keep pursuing my passion in my apartment until I can afford a studio space. Thanks for bringing me back to reality haha Pat B., Callie Beller Diesel, oldlady and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted February 17, 2021 Report Share Posted February 17, 2021 I have working in ceramics full time for over 4 decades-and 1/2 of it was not spent nearly as dust free as the second half -(masks/dust systems/hepa vacumes,etc) Just take precuations and work smart and you will be fine. I get a lung diffusion test now every 10 years so see how elastic my lungs still are as well-the past two where great.Every human is different as to the outcome of this. Its not like you are working in a coal mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Handbuilder91 Posted February 17, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2021 @Mark C. thanks for the reassurance, I feel better knowing a long-time player in the craft is still kicking despite some dusty decades Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denice Posted February 17, 2021 Report Share Posted February 17, 2021 Early 70's I had first glaze class in my first year of college, no one wore masks or gloves. I was working with red lead glazes, I believe there was one mask for people who were mixing clay in the bread dough type mixers. I wasn't able to finish my degree had to get a job. I continued to work with clay at home. I was able to go back to school in the 90's. Safety protocol had really changed, gloves and masks had to be worn in the glaze mixing room. Hazardous materials were marked and pouring water and stirring was done in a open area. Dust storms have silica in them, silica is everywhere. I have been working with clay since 1968, I'm still here no lung problems. Denice Russ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Min Posted February 17, 2021 Report Share Posted February 17, 2021 1 hour ago, Denice said: Dust storms have silica in them, silica is everywhere. Yup! About 60% of the earths crust is silica. Neat video showing "dust" from the Sahara travelling thousands of miles. Diatomaceous earth is approx 80-90% silica, much of the Saharan dust is diatomaceous earth from dried lake-beds in Chad. Not saying it's okay to have sloppy studio hygiene but keep it in perspective. Russ, Chilly and dhPotter 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 Yes, despite the exposure we get, and it's not minor, the odds of developing silicosis now that we practice basic studio hygiene (aka, we now know what the problem is), is very slim. I did have a friend who cut marble for a living as a gravestone carver develop silicosis after only a few years on the job. It was severe enough for him to change careers, but not serious enough for him to require any sort of medication or therapy for it. Back then it was the "wussy" thing to wear PPE, and for marble cutters a dust mask doesn't cut it. Anyway, it's easy to worry about things like health, but it sounds like you're in a much cleaner environment than I am, and I'm not overly worried. I use p100 respirator to mix glazes, clean kiln and kiln shelves, etc. The high exposure things are the biggest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sorcery Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 I had a Potter Friend pass this year. 102 and used to drill through asbestos kiln lids. Fear Nothing! Sorce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouiseD Posted November 29, 2022 Report Share Posted November 29, 2022 (edited) Hello A slightly different problem but a similar vein I think. This question is about health and safety in a pottery job I recently started. Without going into too much detail... I have no experience of working in a pottery previously but am being asked to mix up and spray lead glazes on large quantities of ceramics in a small booth area, inside a windowless workshop. There is an extractor fan to turn on right above the spray area. However clouds of mist from the spray gun frequently come back into my face. The area around the spray booth has a fine layer of dust over everything. I feel my hair has a dry texture after spraying. I wear overalls and a protective 3M vapour type mask which is shared by everyone. However after half an hour spraying yesterday I felt a fine grit layer on my teeth. The inside of the booth itself collects a very thick layer of spray each day. I think I should be concerned? It's a new job and others have been doing this for quite a while previously. Obviously I don't wish to make too much of a fuss but am concerned as it will be a regular part of my weekly duties. Thanks for any feedback. Edited November 29, 2022 by SarahC spelling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted November 29, 2022 Report Share Posted November 29, 2022 Buy your own mask.treat lead exposure seriously -Read up on precautions -Google is your friend Roberta12 and LouiseD 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babs Posted November 29, 2022 Report Share Posted November 29, 2022 (edited) Is the glaze recipe available? Does it contain fritted lead? If your employer is not educating you re all dangers when working with lead there is lack of due diligence and could lead to serious health issues. You could be carrying lead home on your clothes and hair. It is absorbed through the skin. Can damage the brain. Hope the ceramic objects are not functional. Lead could leach out of glazes and poison the user. Be careful. Very serious. Edited November 29, 2022 by Babs LouiseD, Min, Callie Beller Diesel and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldlady Posted November 29, 2022 Report Share Posted November 29, 2022 (edited) you might look for a totally different job, starting today. and report the business to whatever health organization controls such places. you do not want the next person to be affected by this ridiculously wrong ignorance. the employers need to be stopped. Edited November 29, 2022 by oldlady Roberta12, Min, LouiseD and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Min Posted November 29, 2022 Report Share Posted November 29, 2022 @LouiseD, as others have said this is totally unsafe and probably illegal situation to have in a workplace. Looks like you are in England, I believe the link below would either be somewhere you should report the situation too or they should be able to redirect you if not. Take some photos if you can. Even if there wasn't lead in the glaze(s) it is extremely unsafe practice to spray glaze without adequate ventilation and well fitting PPE. https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/tell-us-about-a-health-and-safety-issue.htm Callie Beller Diesel, Roberta12, Pres and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babs Posted November 29, 2022 Report Share Posted November 29, 2022 53 minutes ago, oldlady said: you might look for a totally different job, starting today. and report the business to whatever health organization controls such places. you do not want the next person to be affected by this ridiculously wrong ignorance. the employers need to be stopped. Absolutely needs reporting!!!! Will affect everybody!! Please be responsible and blow the whistle. Your family will be at risk if you launder at home or wear your clothes home. Children in a town here are tested for blood levels of lead and are not allowed to play in the yards, mums clean houses surfaces 3-4 times a day because of wind borne lead. Don't just get out of there , report it. What ceramics are being made? Pres, LouiseD and Roberta12 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babs Posted November 29, 2022 Report Share Posted November 29, 2022 6 minutes ago, Min said: @LouiseD, as others have said this is totally unsafe and probably illegal situation to have in a workplace. Looks like you are in England, I believe the link below would either be somewhere you should report the situation too or they should be able to redirect you if not. Take some photos if you can. Even if there wasn't lead in the glaze(s) it is extremely unsafe practice to spray glaze without adequate ventilation and well fitting PPE. https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/tell-us-about-a-health-and-safety-issue.htm If the lead is in a fritted form, apart from unsafe env. lead or no lead, would it make a difference? LouiseD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Min Posted November 29, 2022 Report Share Posted November 29, 2022 1 hour ago, Babs said: If the lead is in a fritted form, apart from unsafe env. lead or no lead, would it make a difference? Frits containing lead are safer for the potter while using the raw glaze but once a glaze is melted it depends on the glaze chemistry just the same as if using a raw lead glaze. If this studio is allowing and asking employees to spray lead glazes with inadequate PPE and practices I have to wonder what other infractions are happening. Where is the exhaust going? Landing up in the environment? What temperature are they firing it to? (lead volatilizes over 1170C) Silica dust control etc. Is there excessive copper being used in any of the lead glazes? (copper increases lead release) and so on. Mark C., Pres, Babs and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouiseD Posted December 1, 2022 Report Share Posted December 1, 2022 Thank you for the invaluable feed back, I can see now how scary this situation is. The ingredients for some glazes includes Lead bisilicate at up to 60% and Copper oxide 1 to 3%, what does this mean? I am processing all you have said and before I read these replies I requested we use glazes without lead. However I now feel that the whole operation and workshop set up needs to change dramatically to meet the correct safety levels required. I'm taking advice and getting blood tests done, as I can see that everything you have brought up points to reporting this situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babs Posted December 1, 2022 Report Share Posted December 1, 2022 Is this toxic workplace making functional pots? 60% lead Bisilicate??? Your making a low fired clear glaze for hopefully non functional ware? Get out of there. Read up on lead posioning. Guess employer not providing sjowering facilities or total protective covering. The occupants of the lead town are called leadheads by the ignnorant. Their brain functions affected to extent the children score WAY below the norm in all aspects of the educational testing. One example only of how lead affects the body. This is from exposure in the wide open. You are in a confined area. Dont tell me you are mixing the powders in a non protected area. Whole place washed down every night.. Laundering at home? You are pousoningbyour family Hulk and LouiseD 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Min Posted December 2, 2022 Report Share Posted December 2, 2022 4 hours ago, LouiseD said: The ingredients for some glazes includes Lead bisilicate at up to 60% and Copper oxide 1 to 3%, what does this mean? Lead bisilicate is a fritted form of lead, this means it's less soluble (until fired) than raw lead. It definitely shouldn't be inhaled. Copper oxide will make a green glaze. There are National standards for the allowable amounts of leaching of lead. We don't know if the ceramics from the place you work are leaching, samples would need to be tested to ascertain the amount of leaching. Immediate issue is for employees working there with the type of working conditions you have described. This isn't safe practice. Second issue is the potential quality of the glazes after firing, this we don't know. Third issue is the ethics of using a lead glaze under any circumstance. If there is any chance you are pregnant there is an added urgency to not expose yourself to this workplace. LouiseD, Hulk, Pres and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Beller Diesel Posted December 2, 2022 Report Share Posted December 2, 2022 Document and get a lawyer. Get samples if you can. Being asked to spray a lead glaze with no PPE is in no way shape or form safe. This employer has NO excuse. Hulk, Babs, Pres and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hulk Posted December 2, 2022 Report Share Posted December 2, 2022 Regarding lead: "They haven't found a threshold level below which there is no harm." "Current research hasn’t been able to determine a threshold for many of lead’s effects. That is, scientists haven’t yet found a concentration of lead below which no effect occurs." I'm curious, is firing done in the same shop?If so, where does the kiln vent, and what procedure/protocol for handling kiln furniture, and et cetera... LouiseD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted December 2, 2022 Report Share Posted December 2, 2022 This is not my first time about hearing about lead use in England. Its still in use there for some . Google is your friend and learning about being around it or NOT LouiseD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.H Posted May 8, 2023 Report Share Posted May 8, 2023 Hello, I also have a question similar to this topic and hoping to see what others within this community think! I would be really grateful for any comments that might be helpful- In regards to exposure to dust/ risk of developing silica. I am fairly new to pottery/ ceramics and only started seriously making things within the last month or so. I work in my home, which is an open flat with my ‘studio’ basically being open to my lounge and kitchen ect. I have been handbuilding and coiling vessels, and trimming ect in the same space. There was one piece that I had accidentally left uncovered, but really wanted to try and salvage, so basically started sanding this down which created a lot of dust, and when I say a lot, it really was a lot. When I realised it was creating dust, I did put a mask on, and also have a HEPA filter that I put on, I don’t usually put this on when working with clay. But obviously with my ‘studio’ being my home, and everything being open, I can imagine the dust would have gone all over my flat! There have been other pieces that I have trimmed, that haven’t created nearly as much dust as trimmed when leather hard, but wouldn’t wipe down the surfaces until the end, which would have been hours of exposure at a time. I was wiping down my surfaces after each session, but wasn’t always wiping down all areas of the floor, just the bits I could see!! (the HEPA filter, for context is for other art pieces I have been making with gypsum plaster, which I wear a mask for and don’t take off until the ion metre goes green on the filter!) Fast forward to now, over the past week I have started experiencing a constant pain across my chest and a feeling of needing to breathe deeper than normal, I also have a bit of a cough- all symptoms/ feelings Iv never had before! I have been away from my home for the last week on holiday, and thought it might have been pollen or something random, but as it has persisted and hadn’t seemed to get better when back home, I started to worry about what this could be. This is when/ why I started to look further into the effects of clay, as wondered if it would be linked, to then discover the prominent health risks of clay dust and silica!!! I feel so stupid for not looking into this before. I have now wiped down all my surfaces in both my studio area, and the floor of my home (I did clean my floors in the ‘normal’ part of my home, but with ‘flash wipes’ not water, and had notices there were bits of dust within my floor boards). I would often walk across my floor to get to my sink, and think there could have been dust on my feet. I am so, so worried and concerned that I have caused myself irreversible lung damage during this period of not wiping down surfaces as regularly as I should have been, and not as thoroughly on the floor, and the time I sanded down that large piece in my home. But I am also not sure if I have been exposed to it long enough, as a lot of pages I have read inform it can take years to develop and see symptoms! However I had also seen on some pages that there is an ‘acute’ version which can occur after short periods of lots of inhalation. I am basically not sure if I am worrying for nothing, or whether I really should be concerned! Im not expecting medical grade advice as know no one is able to give me that, however I am just hoping that someone may possibly be able to give some clarity, if at all able, if this sort of exposure in this way would be warrant for something serious!! I have been absolutely loving working with clay and building vessels, it was something that was making me geniounly happy, and now I worry I won’t be able to work with it again if I have caused myself damage from being clueless and careless:( I’m 25 years old, so fairly young(ish), and was genuinely looking forward to many many more years of creating with clay, and feel a big loss that this might not be the case now. I know this was a lot to read, so whoever has made it through it reading this all, and whoever may reply, I really thank you in advance!!! As I really am worried, thank you so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hulk Posted May 8, 2023 Report Share Posted May 8, 2023 Hi B.H., welcome to the Forum! My first reaction, seek medical attention for your symptoms. Second, keep the dust under control, starting with no sanding inside, no mixing plasters inside, then add reasonable practices* from there. Handling powders - plaster, glaze materials, et cetera - best done outside, or under a hood (where a fan driven current of air pulls the dust out and away), or in some other dedicated area that is not in the living space! Same for sanding. How much dust, for how long leads to significant damage? Good question. Search silicosis and read up to get an idea... The immediate signals that one is getting way too much dust, uncomfortable eyes, accumulation of dust at the corner of one's eyes (buggers, aka bogeys), coughing, and more accumulation in one's nose, especially when the colour matches up. Please keep in mind, however, that very light exposure, over a very long period of time, can be significant. *I see it's raining in Southhampton this week, so under an overhang outside? When I'm sanding wares, I sit outside with my P100 mask on. I wash the dust off the ware (one bucket to rinse, second bucket to re-rinse), and use a shop vacuum to get most of the dust off my clothing before heading back inside. I'm hosing down the dust into the flower bed, else it just blows inside when I open the doors... I'm changing out of dusty shop clothes soon as I'm done making dust. There are several Forum threads where dust control is discussed, here are a few: QOTW: What tips do you have to make cleaning up your studio easier or more time efficient? - Int'l Ceramic Artists Network (ICAN) Operations and Benefits - Ceramic Arts Daily Community Is silicosis inevitable?? - Studio Operations and Making Work - Ceramic Arts Daily Community Very paranoid about Silicosis - Studio Operations and Making Work - Ceramic Arts Daily Community QoTW: How much air movement do you have in your studio, do you use fans, is cleaning to reduce blown dust part of your process? - Int'l Ceramic Artists Network (ICAN) Operations and Benefits - Ceramic Arts Daily Community dealing with a studio that has bad practices - Studio Operations and Making Work - Ceramic Arts Daily Community Pres 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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