I have heard many horror stories of folks who ended up in the hospital, fighting for their lives (or dead), because they did not use proper safety gear and practices while painting with an airbrush or a spraygun. One man spent almost a month in the hospital after he sprayed clearcoat without a respirator - the clearcoat overspray coated the inside of his lungs and hardened, rendering his lungs fairly useless until the clearcoat sloughed off the inside of the lungs. Imagine breathing just fine one moment, and then gasping for air the next. Not fun, and potentially deadly. All because the man didn’t like it when the respirator made him hot and sweaty in the shop.

When I worked at a sign company many years ago, we would frequently wash our hands in thinner when cleaning our brushes. Yeah, we all feel indestructible when we’re in our youth, don’t we? When I read about the possible consequences of chemical damage to my system, I learned to keep thinner and other cleaning chemicals off my skin as much as possible. Kidney failure and liver toxicity are a serious matter. Those organs do a great deal of work even when you DON’T abuse your body, and if you abuse them just enough, they will QUIT WORKING. You need all your body’s “employees” to show up for work on a daily basis, or the entire business risks a permanant shutdown.

Another analogy…would you ride your motorcycle at 100 MPH down a twisting mountain road without the proper gear or safety techniques? (if you would, then, PLEASE go view some graphic motorcycle crash videos on YouTube) 

How prepared are you to be honest with yourself about your airbrush studio and shop safety? Do you WANT to keep painting for many years to come?

True or False (answers below):

1. I can spray a small part in a large room without a respirator - I’ll only be in the room a few minutes!
2. I don’t need a respirator if I am spraying with the newer water-based paints like “Auto Air”.
3. My eyes need protection, too, not just my lungs. Some of the chemicals are ingested through skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.
4. It’s too hot to wear my respirator today. I wear it almost all the time, so this one time without it won’t hurt me. Sheesh, get off my back!
5. A dust mask is enough to wear while spraying…I don’t need no stinkin’ respirator!

 Answers:
1. FALSE - Never think that just because you’ll only be spraying for a moment or two that you don’t need your respirator. Some of the chemical damage can be cumulative, so a minute here, a minute there, and someday your organs will rebel.

2. FALSE - Even when working with water-based paints, you should wear a respirator. Acrylics are basically a form of plastic. Do you want THAT building up in your lungs? Also, many water-based paint fans use a mixture of Fantastic Cleaner and water to thin the paint. Look at the chemical composition of Fantastic next time you pick up the bottle. Do you believe that you should wear a respirator now?

3. TRUE - chemicals can be absorbed into the body in many different ways. Good eye protection is important when spraying, too. Not only that, but have you ever had thinner splash in your eyes? Now is a good time to ask yourself what you would do if you got a chemical in your eyes while working. Do you have an eyewash station? Or at the very least, a large bottle of water dedicated to eye rinsing if you have an unexpected splash in your eyes? For that matter…do you even have a FIRST AID KIT in your studio? Don’t you think that when working with power tools, files, hammers, x-acto and razor blades that you should at least have something to stop the blood flow in case of an “oops”??

4. FALSE - You should ALWAYS wear your respirator. Some of the chemical damage is cumulative, so what doesn’t bother you today, may shut down your system tomorrow or twenty years from now.

5. FALSE - A dust mask is inadequate lung protection when spraying or airbrushing. The fine particles and chemical vapors produced when painting are not stopped by a dust mask.

If you are seeing psychadelic colors in your Kleenex after painting, then you are not wearing your respirator. Your nose hairs will only stop the “big” particles, not the microparticles or the vapors.

You’ve got a lot of artwork to share with the world. If your lungs, eyes, kidneys or liver shut down or you lose a finger or two due to unsafe studio practices, just think what artwork the world will miss if you were not around to create it!

So, if you don’t have a proper respirator, GET ONE…if you’ve got one, WEAR IT…and make sure you’ve got some sort of FIRST AID KIT and emergency plan in place. There are many good airbrushing books available that will tell you about how to keep your studio a safe and healthy place to create.

Be safe in ‘08! Dawn Schmidt Ventimiglia, airbrush artist
EclecticDawnArts

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