Solvents and your hands

[Rick_in_CT 156]

Growing up in the 70's working on tractors and cars, something always needed cleaning and or painting.  I filled a coffee can with gas, mineral spirits, diesel, kero, thinner, brake cleaner, whatever the job called for, tossed the parts in and scrubbed as needed.  Never once did I think about wearing gloves.  I don't remember seeing anyone wearing gloves back then.  Today, I have a couple boxes of disposable gloves in the shop all the time.  It is now second nature for me to put on gloves before working on the greasy stuff, or working with solvents.  Many times I even put on my mechanics gloves when refueling just to avoid getting gas on the hands.

 

Anytime I go into a professional garage these days I see all of the mechanics wearing gloves.  Times have really changed when it comes to wearing hand protection. Now that we know much more about the effects of chemicals and their ability to enter the body through the skin, gloves just plain make sense.  I can still remember going to high school and being able to smell diesel on my hands, I do miss that!!

 

Have you ever removed red paint from your hands with thinner??  Raise your hand if guilty.  

 

Rick

[AMC RULES 37,133]

 I've never been politically correct. 

[sorekiwi 761]

I only wear gloves when my hands are cold, or when I'm doing something with a hot object.

 

But they're not pretty, and my skin cracks up in cold weather.  I don't like the lack of feeling through gloves.

[KC9KAS 4,741]

I only wear gloves when my hands are cold, or when I'm doing something with a hot object.

 

But they're not pretty, and my skin cracks up in cold weather.  I don't like the lack of feeling through gloves.

I am the same way, and I work with sulfuric acid (93%) and sodium hydroxide (50%)!

[buckrancher 2,679]

[Martin 2,132]

          

[rmaynard 15,533]

I guess I'm lucky. I've worked with harsh chemical all my life, never using gloves. I have been told many years later that the chemicals that I used are metabolized by your liver, and that I will suffer the results of my misuse later in life. So far, so good. I have a physical every year with blood work specific to liver function. Don't get me wrong, I am not condoning the mishandling of chemicals, I am just saying that I don't know if I have problems waiting for me later on, but as of now, I am okay.

 

Having said that, I do wear latex or nitrile gloves now when working with most liquids that are known to be harmful. As I am on the slippery side of the slope of life, I don't want to speed up that slide.

[IthacaJeff 151]

It's the fumes that get me. After becoming violently ill using oven cleaner back in college

I seem to have developed a sensitivity to certain chemical fumes. (It was the only time we

cleaned the oven in our apartment, and wanted to avoid forfeiting the security deposit.

Used A LOT of EasyOff!).

 

Bleaches, tub/tile cleaner, and so forth always give me a headache. But, it still doesn't

get me out of cleaning the bathroom!

 

Jeff

[shorts 182]

When I started working with solvents and chemicals disposable gloves didn't exist and rubber gloves didn't live anywhere except in soapy water, now adays it's nitrile or latex gloves and then what ever is appropriate to protect them except when feel and or machinery creates a safety issue

[Ed Kennell 38,326]

Guilty as charged.     Handled it all for 45 years w/o gloves ...including Mercury , T-111, acetone, MEK,Bromide and Mercury.  Yep, we used Mercury and Bromide in manometers to measure pressure.   Mercury manometers are still used today as the primary source for calibrating high accuracy pressure gages and transducers.  

[squonk 41,171]

Carb cleaner to remove paint from the fingernails.      

[dcrage 628]

What kind of "Bromide" was in manometers?? -- Mercury I understand, but bromine salts??

 

  Yep, we used Mercury and Bromide in manometers to measure pressure.  

[dodgemike 52]

I am not the macho young man I

Used to be. Some of my friends

Make fun of me for using gloves

But your skin has the most surface

Area of any body organ.

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

[Ed Kennell 38,326]

 

What kind of "Bromide" was in manometers?? -- Mercury I understand, but bromine salts.  

 

Mercury, with it's specific gravity of 13.55 heavier than water is the most commonly used fluid for measuring pressure with manometers.  Meriam Manometer markets approx. 10 other fluids for use in manometers.  No. 3 red fluid is a heavy Bromide liquid with a specific gravity of 2.95.  The lower SP Gr fluids are used to measure lower pressures.

[rmaynard 15,533]

An interesting story comes to mind when talking about hands. In 1975, I went to work for an office equipment company in Baltimore. One of the three owners of the business was an inventor. He had several interesting patents. One day a salesman came into the office to discuss a business arrangement with this owner. Our business at the time was the exclusive distributor for dictation equipment and calculators to such hospitals and colleges as Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, and so on. We also had exclusive distribution rights on the entire east coast for Norelco. He offered him the exclusive rights to market a new product. Said this product was going to revolutionize the medical industry. The owner rejected the offer saying that this product would never catch on. What was it?

 

Disposable latex gloves.

[KC9KAS 4,741]

Mercury, with it's specific gravity of 13.55 heavier than water is the most commonly used fluid for measuring pressure with manometers. 

 

Mercury is still used in labrotory grade thermometers as well!

[Kelly 1,029]

I work in a bodyshop and have for 30 years, so I have breathed in everything you can think of, washed my hands in all kinds of stuff, I'm still kickin, but I try to teach my kids and others to use gloves when using chemicals and wear a respirator when sanding or around other stuff that can hurt your lungs.

  And as for Mercury when I was about 10 we moved in to a house and the furnace had broken, and there was tiny silver beads all over the floor (Mercury) I picked it all up and put it in a jar, (now days I bet we would have had a Hazmat team clean it up)  I played with it for years Mom an Dad just said don't touch your face with your hands and wash good after touching it, I still have it, a small baby food jar full I think it's like 10lbs of Mercury I have showed my kids, but never let them play with it. I have a quarter floating on top of it I put in there as a kid, it's pretty cool stuff, and I guess pretty bad for you.   

[RedRanger 1,468]

Carb cleaner to remove paint from the fingernails.      

A real Girly man eh????  

[WNYPCRepair 1,921]

I have used gas as a cleaner/degreaser for most of my life. 

 

When I was a kid, we worked in tobacco fields. The resin from the plants would cover you, and it was sticky like glue. By the end of the day, dirt stuck to the resin until we looked black, and our hair was in clumps. We would basically wash outside in gas, then go inside to shower to wash the gas off.

[Racinbob 11,114]

Funny that this thread got revived today. Here's how my day has gone so far. Took my truck for a spin to heat up the oil so I could change it. Up on ramps, connect a tube on the EZ Drain valve and it starts draining into a 5 quart jug. Easy peasy. But it's not my first battle with that oil filter. Outsmarting the hot oil I decide to wait on the filter and attack the fuel filter while things cool down a bit. Yea, I knew it was under pressure but I grossly under estimated it this time. I completely soaked my shirt in 87 octane. I hung the shirt on a tree branch, wiped down and put another shirt on. Back under the truck to finish the fuel filter. Got it off but then proceeded to dump the remaining fuel in it on the fresh shirt. Not too bad this time so I finished installing the new one. Now on to that  oil filter. Using a long transmission funnel I have gotten lucky a few times and don't get a drop on me. Today was not one of those days. I managed to completely cover my arm in semi hot oil. Fortunately, not too hot anymore but the replacement shirt got trashed. Got things cleaned up and the rest went well. Scrubbed off what I could in the garage sink using plenty of Dawn. Once I was done with the service on the truck it was a good shower to get the remnants off.

Not all that long ago I didn't concern myself about getting that stuff on me. Yea, I've used, and still do use, mineral spirits to clean red paint off....and many other colors as well. These days I'm much more concerned about it and get it washed off as soon as possible. I think most of us, especially us old timers, cringe at all the 'deadly' chemicals we've been exposed to in our lifetimes. Years ago we never thought a thing about it.

 

Edited June 19, 2015 by Racinbob

[Navig8r 132]

I actually got in the habit of wearing gloves from working with a friend at his shop.  He always wore gloves, and all but insisted I should too.  I also learned that many solvents soften the anti-scratch coating on eyeglass lenses... so even if I am wering goggles, I am extra careful to not handle my glasses with certain substances on my hands.... Glasses are too damn expensive!
 

[c-series don 8,735]

Tie an old sock around your wrist when changing oil and it will stop oil from running down your arm!!