How our hobby affects us

When I was a child, probably motivated by some TV series; I often dreamed about a time tunnel where you could go back or forward in time. If this tunnel had existed and a person born in 1800, settled in one of our cities, living together in our environment, eating our food…and spending some time with our hobbies, he would have probably got seriously ill.

The thing is, that the generations that have been living since the twentieth century and to date, are accustomed to coexisting with chemical products at an alarming level; and though the body, has gradually become accustomed to tolerating them, no doubt they will be harmful at medium or long term.

This does not pretend to be an “environmentalist” editorial at all, just I wish to attract the newcomers and youth’s attention about the risks our hobby entails. This is not a complete note, as I’m not an expert about this matter either, so, I recommend to look for reliable information about this subject.

According to the modeling activity, the risks could be divided into four basic points:

1) The fumes (coming from solvents) we breathe: don’t kid yourself!!, they’re all harmful and finally, prolonged exposure has terrible effects on our quality of life.
Glues, paints (especially those which get an excellent metal finishing) even the acrylics, automotive paints, polyurethanes, varnishes for floors…etc, all them emanate fumes causing serious harm to our body. The only protection, is the use of a respirator, but mind!, any available mask will diminish the oxygen amount you breathe, so you’ll need to get expert advice about the maximum of time you may use it and other technical points such as the proper way to use it, kind of filters and so on….Don’t paint without a respirator mask, even if you are outdoors!!!

2)The dust particles we’re exposed to: this activity needs long sanding sessions which in general, produce tiny dust particles our body receive through respiratory tract, eyes and skin. Even the polystyrene is harmful for our health, resins cause inflammation and diseases, and, any dust particle can get into your lungs causing an obstruction.
Verify you have no allergy to those products and use a suitable mask even when sanding wood. DON’T SMOKE in environments with dust particles in suspension, you’ll be smoking an excellent resin or polystyrene cigarette in the end. Fumes of burnt polystyrene is poisonous.

3)Avoid contact with the skin: Use gloves when working with thinners, white spirit and also when handling big resin parts. It’s usual to see the hands turning red when they are in contact with a resin body during several minutes. On the other hand solvents penetrate through the skin, reaching and contaminating at once the liver and other organs, with catastrophic results.

4) The injuries we receive from the tools we use: It’s not a point to disregard, you may lose a finger or…your life. The cutters and other tools are very dangerous and my advice is to take care when using them. NEVER press a closed cyano (CA) glue tube!!!. You might lose an eye or even worst. Besides, a great CA amount spilled over the skin is poisonous. When using a Dremel, take all the necessary precautions, a good trick is to use a small booth made out of plexiglas…or just a huge polyethylene bag to work in.

My intention is neither frightening readers nor getting them away from certain products or materials, just to alert them about the risks and how to avoid them…We want to finish our models, not that they turn out to be our terminators!!!

You left off social side-effects such as:

Losing contact with friends and family through spending too much time at the bench;
Being fired from work for usin office hours to browse forums and ebay;
Having to sell your house to pay the bill on the credit card you used to build your stash;


etc etc etc... :loser: :evillol:

Smart man Klutz, you have noticed the eral dangers.

Very informative article, I may well have to change my model building habits along with buying habits :D

You left off social side-effects such as:

Losing contact with friends and family through spending too much time at the bench;
Being fired from work for usin office hours to browse forums and ebay;
Having to sell your house to pay the bill on the credit card you used to build your stash;


etc etc etc... :loser: :evillol:

Very well, I didn't think in the social effects as well

This thread reminds me of a joke I heard where a master mechanic is teaching his young apprentice how to replace brake pads. "Now don't breathe any of that crap. It'll give ya cancer!" as he takes a long pull off his Marlboro.

Seriously, some stuff is very dangerous like the 2k paints becoming popular. Scale guys use most of the other stuff in such tiny amounts I don't see how there could be a long term effect. My big scale RC buds have started switching to Titebond wood glues because of respiratory allergies from CA exposure. Of course they're building assemblies 5 feet long and buy their CA by the pint!

I try to find out whats in stuff before I work with it and read the MSDS (material safety data sheet) if one is available. And even things that are safe can become harmful in large quantities. If I can smell it I figure I'm absorbing too much and try to improve my ventilation with fans or something. I was concerned about ingesting white metal dust till I discovered it's a tin alloy, not lead.

Of course it's often the stuff everybody "knows" is safe that suddenly becomes headline news.

This thread reminds me of a joke I heard where a master mechanic is teaching his young apprentice how to replace brake pads. "Now don't breathe any of that crap. It'll give ya cancer!" as he takes a long pull off his Marlboro.

Seriously, some stuff is very dangerous like the 2k paints becoming popular. Scale guys use most of the other stuff in such tiny amounts I don't see how there could be a long term effect. My big scale RC buds have started switching to Titebond wood glues because of respiratory allergies from CA exposure. Of course they're building assemblies 5 feet long and buy their CA by the pint!

I try to find out whats in stuff before I work with it and read the MSDS (material safety data sheet) if one is available. And even things that are safe can become harmful in large quantities. If I can smell it I figure I'm absorbing too much and try to improve my ventilation with fans or something. I was concerned about ingesting white metal dust till I discovered it's a tin alloy, not lead.

Of course it's often the stuff everybody "knows" is safe that suddenly becomes headline news.

The 2k paints are really an issue I would say. I don't worry much about the glues or other stuff since they are used in such small quantities... I always wear a 3M Respirator mask (with special paint filter) when spraying any type of paints, that is the least you can do.

But the question remains, is it more dangerous than smoking... I guess not?!

Seriously, some stuff is very dangerous like the 2k paints becoming popular. Scale guys use most of the other stuff in such tiny amounts I don't see how there could be a long term effect.


Of course the amount of chemicals you take it’s crucial, probably the 0,5L I spray at month will cause less damage that 50L a guy at an automotive paint shop does. However what I wrote are the recommendation of physicians and you must have in account that some guys like me are modeling uninterruptedly during the last 40 years. The side noxious effect of the chemicals in the liver and neurons are accumulative so having in account that here there are many newcomers to the hobby I guess that it makes sense they know the risk of the Ketonas, Polyurethanes and hard solvents, as well as resins and other chemicals.

I know people that paint with Polyurethanes and sand resins in the kitchen ( like many of us ) where the wife cooked the food for their babies, and don’t think that the paintbooth will keep safe the neighbor family or the rest of the environment.

Do you know that most of the automotive paints were designer to be used in an industrial environment? Where you get good information to know how much is enough? I think that to be careful is the smart way to build models.