Spraying latex and Interstitial Lung Dis
Howdie ALL,
About a month back, I was painting new doors my girlfriend had gotten for her house. I thought my HVLP conversion gun would come in real handy. And I thought her two car attached garage was just the perfect place to spray. (My shop doesn’t have enough room and would be too cold.) She has a split level house.
I’ll admit that the “overspray” hung in the air in the garage. We could also smell the latex fumes in the lower level. But I had painted in her house before, although it was with brushes and rollers without any bad effects. The girlfriend stayed out of the lower level while the painting was going on.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, she came down with what the doctor thought was double pneumonia. She had a CAT scan today and a pulminary function test yesterday. Her doctor thinks that it is interstitial lung disease.
It was about a week after spraying that she developed symptoms.
Have you good folks ever heard of such a thing before?
What do you guys think?
Could spraying latex cause ILD?
Any doctors or respiratory types out there with knowledge of other possible causes?
Thanks for your input.
I’ll post this on Knots too.
Replies
Chills,
I am not a doctor or anything but the whole premise of your spraying latex in the garage with an HVLP conversion gun as the culprit seems highly unlikely to me. I have been to several woodworking shows where a guy is demonstrating a turbine HVLP spraying latex and water based material all day without a respirator or eye protection. I doubt Turbine Air would risk the liability of anybody at the show or their representatives being exposed to an extremely hazardous condition. An HVLP has to deliver a min. of 75% material onto the surface to be considered HVLP and most guns are much more efficient than that (in my opinion HVLP is HVLP no matter what the air source).
I have sprayed gallons of nitro-cellulose (laquer) outside with a respirator(organic vapor) and almost immediately after spraying have taken off the respirator without really getting a superstrong solvent based intake of air.
I will keep watch to see what others have to say.
I don't think you have caused this condition in your girlfriend and I hope she regains her full health soon.
Clark
Thanks for input, Clark.
She had a pulmonary function test and a CAT scan last week. The way the doc interpreted those results made it sound like she has had it for a while, before I sprayed the doors.
One of the effects of the ILD is tiredness. That may explain why she was napping all the time quite a while back.
So, I feel a little off the hook now. Her parents had implied that my "construction dust" had caused it. I was a little irked by their comments. My knee jerk reaction was to post it to the experts here at Breaktime and on Knots.
Anyhooo... thanks again.
Tell her parents things don't happen that fast.
Before they accuse you, I would recommend they get smart on the pathology of her disease. If my inlaws blamed me for something in that way, I would get hyper very quickly.
I told them I was in Vegas when she was gettting sick. So there was no dust fumes etc for at least 4 or 5 days before she got sick.
They were blaming it on my "construction dust." Come on, give me a break.
Anyway, she had a lung biopsy the other day. She got the results back. It is called sarcodosis.
Something has caused her lungs to develop scar tissue. It has been going on a while. How long is anyone's guess.
Thanks for everyone's input and support.
Best wishes.
Short answer, NO. Even a nursing student should be able to tell you that, I'm surprised as heck the Doc even considered it a remote possibility.
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain