[Rockhounds] Toxic Minerals and Common Sense

[Axel Emmermann]

Indeed, Kitty.
"Hazardous" is like the Panamanian flag in shipping. It covers a wide range
of terms.

Maybe a warning to all those cabbers... Anything that you can safely eat or
drink belongs in your body, the rest is to be considered "unknown
health-threat".

Cheers

Axel 

> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com 
> [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] Namens Kitty & 
> Bill Heacox
> Verzonden: zaterdag 11 augustus 2007 4:32
> Aan: Rock Currier; Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for 
> rock and gem collectors
> Onderwerp: Re: [Rockhounds] Toxic Minerals and Common Sense 
> 
> A friend of mine who teaches ceramics at our community 
> college mixed his own clay from powder ordered from a 
> wholesaler on the mainland USA.  He figured he was saving a 
> lot of money by adding the water himself, and also he could 
> vary the formula by adding more bentonite, for example for a 
> different plasticity.  After about 35 years of doing this, he 
> went to his doctor with a persistent cough.  The doctor 
> looked at his X-ray and said, "How many years have you been a 
> smoker?"  My friend had never smoked, but his lungs looked 
> black from years of inhaled clay powder.  He said he always 
> used a gauze mask (not a true safety breathing mask) and 
> thought that would be enough.  He's 6' 1" tall and now he 
> weighs only 140 lbs.  His lungs are beginning to clear, but 
> he's still a pretty sick fellow.
> 
> Aloha, Kitty
> 
> 
> At 04:24 PM 8/10/2007, you wrote:
> >In my 45 years of fooling around with minerals I have never 
> heard of a 
> >collector, curator or mineral dealer that has suffered any toxic 
> >effects from the minerals they have handled, and some dealers and 
> >collectors are exposed to a lot of mineralized dust in mines 
> and in the 
> >trimming and processing of minerals. The big worries for mineral 
> >collectors and dealers is that they can and do occasionally kill or 
> >injure themselves in crawling around in mines and mineral localities 
> >and have rocks fall on them or hurt themselves when trying 
> to break big 
> >ones into small ones. These injuries are thousands of times 
> more likely 
> >to harm you than the toxic effect of minerals. Miners and mineral 
> >industry workers sometimes do over a lifetime of exposure sometimes 
> >suffer the toxic effects of minerals (cinnabar miners, asbestos 
> >workers, and those that breathe silica dust for long periods.) 
> >Collectors don't need to worry about that kind of exposure. 
> You should 
> >be more worried about eating French fries and not getting enough 
> >exercise than about handling your specimens and living with 
> them under your bed probably even the radio active ones if 
> the real truth could be measured and known.
> >Rock Currier
> 
> --
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