Suddenly developed an allergy to yellow poplar sawdust ??

chainsaw_louie · June 17, 2013, 12:04:57 AM

Hi ,

Im trying to figure out what is causing this red rash to appear on my face . I dont think its sunburn , but the two times its recently appeared was when I was milling yellow poplar. I've milled lots of this before so its odd that this would be causing a skin irritation now when it never did before.

Very strange . This will be very bad news if I have developed an allergy to the sawdust from milling wood. OMG please no !

Has anyone else gotten any skin irritations from sawdust, any suggestions for keeping it off, maybe a full face mask. I hope its just the poplar that is causing this then the solution is easy, just mill something else.

beenthere · June 17, 2013, 12:50:17 AM

Have you ruled out poison ivy? Over the years I have lost my resistance to PI.

I have to wash soon after sawing down trees that are wrapped in PI, and keep the handling of the firewood in mind when splitting and moving it to the wood burner. Use gloves and wash hands regularly.

But then over the years, I have gained a few allergies I didn't use to have. First was finding out I was allergic to horses. Next was cats. And now, coming stronger all the time is dogs. That one bothers me the more than the cats. Always loved being around horses. I can more easily avoid the horses than I can the cats.

Maybe try a mask when sawing the y. poplar to see if that helps, or to figure out if that is what is causing the rash.
Hope sawing won't be a problem for you. I believe ash bothered Jeff whenever it showed up at his sawmill site.

nk14zp · June 17, 2013, 02:29:39 AM

Quote from: chainsaw_louie on June 17, 2013, 12:04:57 AM
Hi ,

Im trying to figure out what is causing this red rash to appear on my face . I dont think its sunburn , but the two times its recently appeared was when I was milling yellow poplar. I've milled lots of this before so its odd that this would be causing a skin irritation now when it never did before.

Very strange . This will be very bad news if I have developed an allergy to the sawdust from milling wood. OMG please no !

Has anyone else gotten any skin irritations from sawdust, any suggestions for keeping it off, maybe a full face mask. I hope its just the poplar that is causing this then the solution is easy, just mill something else.

Send me your addy and I'll come pick up your mill to prevent future exposure.

customsawyer · June 17, 2013, 04:19:44 AM

I had the same thing happen to me about 7 years ago. It was only yellow popular and it was worse in the spring. I tried the over the counter allergy meds but finally went to my Dr. he gave me a prescription. I don't remember what it was as I have not had to take it for years. I don't have much call to cut it very often any more but when I do it don't seem to be much of a problem. The other thing I found that helped was to wash all exposed skin several times while cutting the popular.

Ron Wenrich · June 17, 2013, 06:28:16 AM

Poplar can cause skin irritations and dermatitis in some people. Sap flow is pretty high right now, so that may be why you notice it more now than before. The poison ivy is another aspect.

rimshot · June 17, 2013, 06:39:31 AM

Don't jump to conclusions regarding the cause of an allergy. Go to an allergist first and get tested. . Youi might be surprised.

rim

thecfarm · June 17, 2013, 06:45:20 AM

Rash only on your face? Not on your arms? Kinda odd. Are these freshly cut trees? I was just thinking maybe pollen from something else is on the logs and bothering you. Or maybe even dragged through something.

Sixacresand · June 17, 2013, 07:20:11 AM

Seems like poplar may not be too popular. J/K. I hope you figure out how to get around the allergies.

bandmiller2 · June 17, 2013, 07:21:34 AM

Louie,You could try something like vasoline on your face,long sleeves and gloves.When done wash vasoline off.A large fan blowing the sawdust away may help. Frank C.

orion388 · June 17, 2013, 09:38:37 AM

Chainsaw... I can tell you things change as we age. Recently (last 3 years) I personally developed an allergy to Oak. And only Oak, been around wood my whole life and now whenever I touch open oak, IE: like carrying firewood,milling oak. I develop a rash wherever it touches me.. go figure... usually takes several hours to a day to clear. Kicker is it has to be opened oak, if it has the bark on it I'm good. More of an inconvinence than anything. I take a Zrtec and keep gettin it done .. ???

hunz · June 17, 2013, 09:51:26 AM

You may have already ruled this out, but have you recently changed your blade lubricant? When I first started out sawing I used kerosene as blade lube. Every day out there it felt like I had the worst sunburn of my life until I figured out the kerosene soaked sawdust was landing a over me causing my skin to burn. I thought if you had recently switched an additive in your lube, you may be allergic to an ingredient in that.

Mountain State Farm · June 17, 2013, 02:13:39 PM

Hi Chainsaw_Louie,

I have become very allergic to poplar. I have tried everything I can think of including some of the above suggestions. At first I thought it was just contact exposure on my skin so I covered up arms, hands, face mask and still felt like battery acid had been poured on me that night. My response, (rash, urticaria) is somewhat delayed by about six hours. A shower soon after milling has no effect. Sweating while milling makes it much worse. ERC has nearly the same effect on me. When the poplar lumber has dried and I'm working with the boards or timbers my allergic response is not nearly as severe but I still have to limit my exposure to the dust. All other species, ( that I have milled so far), conifers and hardwood have no or little effect on me. To date I have only found two real solutions to my problem. First is to only mill when the wind conditions are right to keep the dust off of me and the second is to have my son mill all of my poplar while I am far away.

This has really become a PITA for me because I love the characteristics of poplar and my place has loads of nice big, straight trees. It's one of the reasons I bought a mill. I have talked with others that have developed sawdust allergies and it could be worse for me because some of them had to give up milling.

I have read that once a person develops an allergy to certain tree sawdust, it becomes worse with each exposure so please be careful Chainsaw, anaphylaxis and hypersensitivity are not good things to play with. Be safe, Dave.

chainsaw_louie · June 17, 2013, 09:20:14 PM

Thanks for all the good ideas, I think I can narrow it down based on what has been said here.

At first I thought it was something called "Rosacea" which is redness and irritation of the face nose and forehead triggered by sunlight and hot weather among other things. But the two times this has happened I was milling poplar (it was sunny and warm too). The second time I noticed that I got some irritation on my arms which surely means its NOT rosacea .

It may be Poison Ivy which I am not usually sensitive to but I've heard that some people are super sensitive even a little PI but there was such a tiny bit of PI on that tree, I find that hard to believe.

Sensitivity to the poplar sawdust itself is looking more likely. What you describe, Dave sounds spot on, especially the part about milling and getting sweaty makes it worse. At first I thought it was sunburn but the pattern on my face, just around my nose, did not seem like the usual sunburn pattern, besides I had a wide brim hat on . So Im going to try covering up with long sleeves and putting some kind of skin cream on. Afterwards, I'll try washing with Tecmu to see if that has any affect . Then maybe a full face mask etc http://www.envirosafetyproducts.com/3m-6000-series-full-facepiece-respirator.html but its not going to be fun and I have a heap of poplar and it cuts so nice , just like butter . Oh well , got to take it a step at a time, it the Milling Gods say 'no more poplar milling' then I'll mill something else. Its would be great if this is just a poplar reaction and not all sawdust.

Ron Wenrich · June 18, 2013, 05:22:52 AM

I looked into poplar sap one time and the only data I could come up with was from a long time ago. The data suggested that tulip poplar makes a natural benzene.

Being that the sap is flowing pretty good right now, those logs are loaded. When sap flow is less, you may not have as much of a problem. How long have these logs been laying?