We have a baby on the way and have chosen our smallest bedroom to serve as the nursery. Regarding the title of the article, you can either read for context below, or just cut to the chase: TL;DR: Don’t use Methylene Chloride based products, it’s not worth your health, they are sneaky deadly.
Our house is old, 100 years old this year in fact, and it has had many upgrades and repairs over those years. The quality of many of those repairs is questionable and usually baffling.
I can tell by the barely-showing original trim and molding that the nursery drywall was applied directly over existing wall which was likely plaster-lath. This is a shame because the trim is real wood, and having been built in 1918 is of the craftsman era of American home construction. Despite the ugly brown paint, the profile is simple, refined, and classic. Someday I hope to gut the upstairs, re-insulate the walls, and install proper drywall possibly with a faux plaster finish to mimic the original. It’s really quite beautiful.
The nursery window case and trim were painting with that same brown, but the paint had bubbled and cracked, likely from years of moisture and sunlight. I decided that while the walls weren’t ideal, I’d still do my best job and remove the paint so that the new glossy paint for which I had planned would look as good as possible.
A few years back, I bought a can of Klean Strip Strip-X Stripper from the Home Despot. I bought it to remove the original blue enamel from my shitty $50 used Delta Shopmaster 10″ tablesaw. I used maybe two brushstrokes-worth and the can sat unused until yesterday when I decided that since it’s rated for use on wood, I’d give it a shot on the window paint.
An hour later, I was not feeling so great. I think it was a combination of:
- mild dehydration
- extended muscle tension from multiple ongoing projects and being out of shape
- the solvent vapors
I experienced nausea, delirium, and had a wicked headache for a couple of hours. So I took a scary, scary nap. Somehow I forced myself to get up and finish the job, because the solvent was still doing its thing on the window frame. I then went through the rigamarole of symptoms again despite having the window wide open through the whole process and a fan removing air. After my second bout with the vapors, I decided to do a little more research on my opponent. Turns out this motherfucker was a heavy hitter. My lungs, mucosa, and nervous system had almost no chance.
The can clearly states, though in small print, that this a professional product to be used by professionals, and that a dust mask is not sufficient protection, and the myriad results of use, including death. Nowhere does it say what actual PPE one needs to protect one’s self – and as I fell deeper down my research rabbit hole, I came to find out why.
Unlike many household cleaners and solvents, Methylene Chloride is not an organic solvent – it is synthetic as fuck solvent, and one that cannot actually be filtered by capital ANY filtration systems. To use this stuff on the job professionally, you’re supposed to wear a Supplied Air Respirator (SAR). That entails a full face mask with positive pressured atmosphere provided by either a tank of compressed air with a specified range of oxygen/nitrogen/etc. OR a compressor in a safe room supplying air through a hose a maximum of 300 feet away. In other words, you breath in clean air that pushes out of valves, preventing contaminated air from entering. These systems costs hundreds if not thousands of dollars, and while they are certainly something into which I would personally consider investing, most DIYers or handy-folk may not realize the severity of the hazards associated with use of this product let alone the gear necessary for proper use.
This shit is serious business. Some poor chappie died while using this as recently as three months ago. OSHA keeps a database of safety related professional injuries and deaths, as well as related details. From 2000-2011, OSHA records show 12 professional laborers who died using products containing Methylene Chloride. The problem is, that number is likely significantly higher when considering the number of independently employed contractors and DIYers who use these chemicals with or without proper knowledge or training.
The knowledge gap here is astounding and is exacerbated by poor labeling and even poorer information regarding proper PPE from OSHA and the CDC.
Fortunately, this shit is being banned for consumer sale by the EPA, starting 2019. In the meantime, find something less dangerous to remove your finishes, this shit just isn’t worth the risks.
Citations:
- http://www.kleanstrip.com/product/premium-stripper
- http://www.kleanstrip.com/uploads/documents/GSX6_SDS-105.32.pdf
- https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/respiratory/respirator_selection_airvsatmos_resp.html
- https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6107a2.htm?s_cid=mm6107a2_w
- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/climate/lowes-drops-paint-strippers-blamed-in-dozens-of-deaths.html