POLL: Awareness / Concern about Toxicity

[helenh]

I have had 2 bouts with pneumonia in the last 12 months. A cold triggers an asthma attack. The last thing I want to do is irritate my lungs. I now use a mask and have a small HEPA air filter next to my easel. Sometimes I wear gloves, but I'm not consistent about that. I clean up the visible dust from my easel. Unfortunately, I have a carpeted floor. I put a flannel-backed tablecloth upside down under my easel. I don't think that's good enough. I read a suggestion somewhere on this forum to put a sheet of vinyl over the carpet and a piece of lineoleum (Do they even make that anymore?) over that. The floor can then be easily damp mopped. I think that's my next step. I can only hope that continuing to work in pastel using these precautions will allow me to continue working in this medium.

[ourcassidy!]

Helen, I hope the new measures work to help keep you safe! I love pastels...but I really have no place that I would consider a safe enviorment in which to work. I have a very small area in room I use for a studio however as in your case, it has carpet. I also use it as an extra bedrooom. Since there are lot of fibers in there it just became a battle to keep everything clean, even though I would cover it etc...just more of a hassel than it got to be reward. I have space in the kitchen, but of course that enviorment is not conducive to pastel dust...

I have used some of the panpastels and while there is much less dust there is still dust flying around. I love the direct hand to paper/canves etc without the brush in between...but isn't working too well.

I do use the out of doors when I can as I do really enjoy painting with the pastels. Just think I need a bigger or at least dedicated space in which to play...Oh well...that's part of the reason I have been trying my hand at colored pencils and pastels pencils...like the drawing aspect etc. and it helps somewhat with the dust factor...it's portable and not much mess...

Hope you stay healthy...

Pam

[Maggie P]

Helen, there are other things you can put down to keep the pastel dust off the carpet. One is the large plastic thing that they sell at office supply stores to go under the chair so it will roll easily. That is very sturdy and no pastel dust will get through, and you can wipe it clean pretty easily.

I'm careful to collect dust with a damp paper towel and dispose of it. And the HEPA filter should help, as should wearing a mask.

Hope all the ideas here work for you...

[timonsloane]

Since we’re talking about air filters I thought I’d share my setup.

I have a Holmes HAP726 HEPA air purifier. This is a unit that can be placed flat against a wall – a feature I’d highly recommend as it makes many more placement options possible. I keep the filter to the side of my easel. I draws air in the front without creating a noticeable breeze, and exhausts air out the right side behind the easel (the exhaust is quite forceful). What’s great about this setup is that is creates only a very minor airflow around the front of the easel (so minor I can’t feel it), but keeps the air circulating around my studio.



I find I can use it while I’m painting with no problems – even on high. And when I brush off pastel, I can see it actively sucking in the very light partials and sweeping them away. But most of the pastel dust still falls into a tray at the bottom of the easel where I collect it to make new sticks.

I really like the front-to-side airflow. When I was looking for a HEPA filter, I found it very hard to tell exactly how the air was going to flow in and out of the units on the market. None of them seem to list this information very clearly. It seems many of them need to be in the middle of the room because they draw air in from all sides.

Another great feature is that is has a timer. I can set it on high to run for a few hours after I’m done working, and it shuts itself off automatically.

With a list price of $100 (less than one-tenth the cost of the artist air system), I think this is a great alternative. And I really prefer that it doesn’t eat all the pastel dust (unlike the artists air) so I can still make some yummy grays from the collected dust.

Even better, I got it on ebay for $30.

[Colorix]

My system is very similar to Timon's, above. Only difference is that my machine has the out-vent on the top, straight up. I've watched the dust-flow backlit, and it gets sucked in, and stays in. When it is on low, I can see the dust float to to intake, away from my face. Got mine cheap too, on our equivalent to ebay. And I can use it for its original purpose too, to keep pollen from the indoor air.

Charlie

[JPQ]

I think my pastels classicied safe (still contains pthalos,and chromium oxide green and real prussian blue for example) and i use (currently not always) mask. and mix by fingers i tested paper stomp i dont like what kind stuff its make.(derwent number 2 i think)

[NRC]

How noisy are these filters? I don't like the constant noise/humming of machines - drives me batty. We have no battery operated clocks. I can't stand hearing the constant tick while my husband thinks it's wonderful our neighborhood is so quiet one CAN hear the tick tock. I enjoy music while I paint, but in the background. Would this be sufficient to cover the filter noise?

[timonsloane]

The filters sound just like a portable house fan. You can definitely hear them, but since it is a constant white noise I don't find it bothersome. I can still play music.

NRC - it sounds like you're quite sensitive. It might very well be too noisy for your taste. You could choose to run it only after you've left the studio if you find the noise is just too much.

[rgb]

After years of using Design Art Markers on a daily basis and getting hyper buzzes, pastels are nothing. Driving 30-40 minutes in heavy traffic to and from work for years has probably done more damage than working with pastels could ever do.

Reasonable precautions are taken, but I don't worry about pastels because I don't think they are dangerous when compared to other daily contacts (Did you wash your fruits and veggies today? The sprays sink into some of them, so washing doesn't help.). Food and drink are kept away from my pastel zone, and the ventilation is decent. My bad habit of wiping my fingers on my jeans probably means I walk around in toxic jeans.

[NRC]

Thank goodness our house cools down in summer with just opening all the windows wide. I can't sleep with a fan running at night. Where possible I sew by hand because the sewing machine is noisy, I dislike vacuuming (well, I think I hate that even without the noise). I once lived in a place where I couldn't sleep in bedrooms on one side of the house - there was a transformer on the pole outside and that humming at night *@! I think a fan noise with music over it would be all right. I hadn't really worried about dust but it is almost winter now (we had our first snow today).... I won't be leaving windows and doors wide open for a long while. Thanks.

[Phil Coleman]

Could it be worthwhile documenting for the benefit of us all here just which brands do contain hazardous substances. I am aware that Winsor and Newtons and Rembrandt's do not contain dangerous metals, yet Unison states clearly on their web site that for the diversity in their hues that they do use Cadmium and Cobalt. I am still uncertain as to which other manufactures do use such chemicals

[terri66]

I do use barrier cream and gloves (part of that is how dry my hands get here in the winter). I use fixative minimally, more because of aerosol concerns. No eating and drinking in the studio, and a good wash-up when I head out. Breathing the dust is probably the greatest concern to me, so I don't blow on my paintings and I tap them off outside.
But considering the chemical heavy jobs I did in the late eighties and early nineties and a couple of years of ceramics, my pastel concerns are minimal.

[Colorix]

Phil, the modern Cadmiums are not water soluble, and do not penetrate the skin-barrier, so they really are fine to use these days. I'd not use any old sticks of cads, though. The scare about them comes from a time when they were manufactured differently, and back then it was important to warn people. Not true today, though, so we can use those glorious colours without problems, other than ordinary caution and not breathe in the fine dust, just as with any other pigment.

The Unisons are hand-made. Think of it, they come into repeated contact with large amounts of cad pigments. Makes sense that if they can make them by hand, the we can use them by hand too.

Charlie

[Phil Coleman]

Charlie,,

I have set of 500 vintage Giraults and yes i am a little apprehensive about using these for the reasons you stated. So little information is available relating to these pastels and their chemical composition.

[Colorix]

500! Oooo! Hm, write to them and ask. There's usually someone who knows English. It may help if you know approximately how old the set is, too. When I found info, I searched the net with "cadmium pigment" and "toxic", had to wade through a lot of pages, but somewhere around 10 the lab-reports started to show up.