Sometimes I get lazy and I let my hands get covered with whatever chemicals I'm working with when cleaning. I know that can't be good. I've also kept a box of disposable medical gloves handy but those seem to disintegate after a few minutes. What gloves stand up to gun cleaning solvents? I use a lot of Ed's Red.
Max: I'd sure love to hear a chemist or a physician discuss solvent exposure, as I have been pretty lax over the years with Hoppe's, Kroil, etc. and have no idea if I am raising my cancer risks or inviting some other health problem. Just the other day I got carried away removing cosmoline from a Mauser by sloshing it in a bread pan full of mineral spirits. Probably pretty dumb. Can't answer about the glove issue.
There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t. – John Green, author
Posts: 16677 | Location: Las Cruces, NM | Registered: 03 June 2000
Originally posted by Bill/Oregon: Max: I'd sure love to hear a chemist or a physician discuss solvent exposure
Will a cancer survivor do? Considering chemicals are absorbed into the bloodstream real easy through the palms of your hands, and carried into your kidneys where it is filtered out and stored in the bladder until you get that urge... A person can lose a lot of major pieces from chemical exposure.
Now, I use Nitrile gloves whenever possible. These hold up well in those chemicals used in the gunsmithing business including the nasty stuff like MEK and acetone. Of course, the not handling cigarettes with solvent soaked hands helps too. Not preaching, just stating fact.
I am not a chemist or a physician but I am in the chemical manufacturing and distribution industry. I handle chemicals almost every day. I am amazed at the casual way in which we consumers expose ourselves to chemicals on a daily basis. We breathe in disinfectants, soak our clothing and skin in pesticides, we get gasoline on our hands, we clean our homes with aggressive cleaners, and we clean our firearms with all sorts of solvents.
The fact is, our skin can quickly soak up these chemicals and introduce them into our blood stream where our kidneys and liver must deal with the toxins. ANY exposure is potentially harmful, but repeated exposure can hammer your organs. If you read Material Safety Data Sheets, you will find the basic precautionary language on handling various chemicals. The most prudent rule of thumb is always wear gloves when handling ANY chemical. And use a chemical resistant product like Nitrile. Latex gloves are not designed to be chemical resistant.
Think about it this way, a box of Nitrile gloves is cheaper than a liver transplant...
Posts: 10780 | Location: Test Tube | Registered: 27 February 2001
What ZD said. Nitrile gloves are good all-around resistant gloves. They're great for caustics, acids, hydrocarbons and petroleum distillates. They'll do in a pinch for MEK and acetone. I'm talking about the thick kind, as thick as Playtex gloves, not the condom-thin disposables, which are good for keeping blood and germs and soapy water off your hands and not much else.
Halogenated solvents (methylene chloride, carbeuretor cleaner, some paint removers) go through all common gloves, and very quickly. When you get it on the gloves, your hands feel all cool and tingly inside. That's the methylene chloride going through your skin. Viton is good protection, but very expensive. I recommend minimizing how much you use and substituting a petroleum distillate degreaser and NMP-based paint remover if possible. Halogenated stuff will give you liver cancer. Especially avoid breathing it.
H. C.
Posts: 3691 | Location: West Virginia | Registered: 23 May 2001
Another thing you need to be aware of is what is IN the chemicals you are handling...in this case we are removing nice stuff like lead by mobilizing it in a solvent. If that solvent penetrates your skin or gets in your lungs (who uses an air compressor to blow out their guns???) it will carry that lead with it.
Heavy metal poisioning sucks!
For weekly use or less, you probably din't have anything to worry about unless you are taking a bath in it, but daily use REQUIRES more care...and it never hurts to be careful in any case.
Oh, I'm not a chemist, but worked in a trace metals lab at a uranium mine (lot's of nastys there!) to help pay my way through college...and have enough chemisty coursework to qualify for a minor if my major allowed it (it doesn't, dang engineering program).
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
Posts: 1780 | Location: South Texas, U. S. A. | Registered: 22 January 2004
ZD is right and more .Our chemicalized world has resulted in an ever increasing number of people with cancer , allergies ,autoimmune system problems , etc. Even printing inks - now most of them have carriers which carry the ink chemicals rapidly through the skin. Carriers are also used more and more with pesticides. You don't handle pesticides ?? Almost every cardboard box is now treated with them !! -- WELL ventilated areas , proper gloves are the minimum .
I lost a bladder, kidney, prostate and lower lymph nodes to cancer caused by chemical exposure and so I can tell you first hand, if you ain't wearing gloves when handling any chemical, you're stupid!
Nitril gloves are good, but will not hold up to MEK very long (I am a Chem E, and have seen what MEK will do over long exposure).
The best way is wear thick chemical resistant gloves, in a well ventalated room. That and maybe just go to using a plain old ammonia solution. Might take longer, but you really don't want to be around most nitro solvents very long.
