Respiratory irritation from Cedar

[Buzsaw]

Anybody ever experienced upper respiratory irritation and congestion from working with red cedar and juniper?
I've been sawing quite a bit lately and twice for a couple of days at a time I've had a tightening of the chest from sternum to backbone that actually feels more like a muscle spasm than anything but accompanied with sinus and bronchial congestion.  I took several fresh sawed boards into my shop recently to build a 10' gate for a horse arena I'm working on and came down with the second bout of this stuff.  I've read that the shavings and sawdust are NOT recommended for horse or dog bedding due to problems with lung irrritation.
Any way to avoid this short of using another wood?  I've got a fair sized log pile still needing to be sawed up.

Buzsaw

[Warbird]

I noticed a small bit of irritation when a buddy and I were working with a lot of Spanish Cedar a few years ago.  A simple dust mask and proper ventilation seemed to work for us.

What you describe sounds much more serious than anything I have experienced.  Have you seen a doctor?  You may have something else going on that the cedar dust is aggravating.

[Jeff]

Anytime I have anything to do with Cedar sawdust I either have breathing problems or hives and rashes. However, cedar is my favorite wood so I have to deal with the symptoms quite often. 

Here is a search link that should return several things regarding allergic reactions and cedar. 

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=search2;search=cedar%20allergies

[pineywoods]

Cedar sawdust gives me some of the same problems. I mounted a fan on my mill that blows on the back of the sawyers head. Takes care of most of the problems

[Buzsaw]

Thanks for the link Jeff.  I'm feeling alot better this morning.  My wife said she gets a little tightness and irritation just from going in the shop where the boards and gate are.  Not much ventilation in there but a fair sized area (24 x 28).   Maybe it is the prolonged exposure to the aroma that gets to me the most.  Sawdust I can usually just snort out and be done with it.  My only known allergies are ragweed, cat dander and penicillan.  But I've noticed dusts of all kinds have been giving me problems more and more.  I have some dust masks but rarely remember to use them.  Guess I'll just have to get into the habit of using them more and more.

[Jeff]

I sure its an accumulative thing. I was never allergic to anything when I first stared workingin a sawmill in 1979. By the early 1990's I had developed full blown reactions to ash and sometimes even maple if it was dry.  The fine dust that ash generates when being sawn will send me into a full blown asthma attack. If an ash log made it to the debarker at the mill, I would know it well before it got to me. Anytime I would start wheezing in the sawbooth for what was apparently no reason meant that an ash log had been debarked.

[Warren]

Allergies are kinda interesting. I was seriously ill from inhalation type allergies when I was pre-school age.  But eventually grew out of most of them by the time I was 20.  My dad OTOH, had zero allergies as a kid.  But grew into his allergies from about age 50 onward...