# is inhaling while blowing glass dangerous? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 10, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141 "2014-05-10T19:26:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/1 "2014-05-10T19:26:10Z")
When you’re blowing glass, what happens if you accidentally inhale from the blowing tube? I know you’ll be drawing in your own exhaled breath (which can be dangerous if you do it repeatedly). But will the air be superheated from the glass? Yes the glass is at several hundred degrees celsius, but they usually use blowing tubes that are several feet long meaning the air could cool to a tolerable temperature before it reaches the lips, or that you’d be drawing in mostly the air in the tube which isn’t that hot to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/2 "2014-05-10T19:34:22Z")
I think it’d be fine for a while for the reasons you give. Standards for the safety of this sort of thing change all the time. We used to be instructed to make fine antimony and bismuth wires by sucking the molten metal into a glass tube, then drawing the tube out fine in a flame, then dissolving the glass off the wire in a bath of hydrofluoric acid sitting in a trench cut in a block of paraffin. Nowadays we’d arrest anybody giving instruction like that. But such things generally work fine if you’re careful. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/3 "2014-05-10T20:07:39Z")
you don’t blow until the glass is sealed (unless you are an unskilled person). mouthpiece might be in your teeth but your lips are open. with glass blowing you are doing very small puffs, including some very small inhales for some procedures, with what most would be faced with in decorative or utility glassblowing. if you were working on some large volume piece you would know not to inhale when you didn’t want to. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/4 "2014-05-10T20:27:09Z")
I saw a glass blower demonstrating his craft in West Virginia say he had to remember not to inhale. I’m pretty sure it was meant as a joke, it certainly got a laugh There could be vapor and particles inhaled from the molten glass that would be insignificant if inhaled a couple of times, but anyone who does this frequently might be at risk. I don’t know what kind of metals are added to glass now, but inhaling any of them along with silica particles isn’t going to be good for you. ETA: [Looks like this subject has been discussed to some degree before.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=387794) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/5 "2014-05-10T22:05:16Z")
Don’t do it, you will end up with a pane in your chest. ---
**Author:** ![Knuffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7c8e57/32.png) [@Knuffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knuffle)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/6 "2014-05-10T22:11:55Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Don’t do it, you will end up with a pane in your chest. No doubt. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/7 "2014-05-10T22:15:35Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Don’t do it, you will end up with a pane in your chest. that was pretty transparent. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/8 "2014-05-10T23:06:25Z")
It would appear that it is rather easy to get blown away. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/9 "2014-05-11T08:07:01Z")
It’s better than having the hiccups. The last guy to do that turned out a couple of thousand percolator caps before he got rid of them. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/10 "2014-05-11T15:35:53Z")
This is a somewhat older paper, about 25 years old now, but it was easily found and is not behind a paywall: > [@Sankila et al.](#): > > Our results do not indicate an increased cancer risk among workers in the glass manufacturing industry, with the exceptions of lung and skin cancer (and a > borderline increase of stomach cancer among glass blowers). Analyses by specific exposures may still show risk factors, but recent developments towards more automated processes decrease both the number of workers and heavy exposures, and thus probably potential cancer hazards as well (glass blowing using oral methods in factory A ended in 1975, and that part of the factory serves as a museum. The rest of the factory will be closed down in the near future). Further studies in this field in Finland alone may not > produce much more useful information because of the small number of workers in the industry and the lack of data on specific previous exposures. The study followed a little over 3000 Finnish glass workers in two factories from 1953-1986 through the Finnish Cancer Registry. Lung cancer and skin cancer were increased slightly in their sample, but it’s not clear that the numbers of cases were sufficient for a comparison to the general population, and the authors were worried that confounding lifestyle choices, like smoking, might cause the increase in lung cancer. ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/11 "2014-05-12T15:41:31Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > ETA: [Looks like this subject has been discussed to some degree before.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=387794) Yeah, I looked at that one before posting. However, it’s mostly about the dangerous substances used in glassmaking, not the hot glass itself. > [@johnpost](#): > > you don’t blow until the glass is sealed (unless you are an unskilled person). mouthpiece might be in your teeth but your lips are open. > > with glass blowing you are doing very small puffs, including some very small inhales for some procedures, with what most would be faced with in decorative or utility glassblowing. what do you mean “until the glass is sealed”? Is that a typo, or are you saying the glass blob itself is NOT sealedl? Also, I assume you’re speaking from firsthand knowledge? That doesn’t sound like something you’d see in a textbook or documentary. That’s definitely a definitive answer. [insert joke about “mind blowing” facts, here] ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/12 "2014-05-12T16:11:16Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > you don’t blow until the glass is sealed (unless you are an unskilled person). mouthpiece might be in your teeth but your lips are open. > > with glass blowing you are doing very small puffs, including some very small inhales for some procedures, with what most would be faced with in decorative or utility glassblowing. > [@dstarfire](#): > > what do you mean “until the glass is sealed”? Is that a typo, or are you saying the glass blob itself is NOT sealedl? > > Also, I assume you’re speaking from firsthand knowledge? That doesn’t sound like something you’d see in a textbook or documentary. That’s definitely a definitive answer. if you do tank glass glassblowing (blowpipe and tank of molten glass in a furnace) you start with a blob which is sealed. for some decorative or scientific glass blowing (called lampwork, torchwork) you might start with an open glass tube where you create a sealed tube as a first step. if you inhaled before the tube is sealed then you would freely inhale hot air. as the tube is sealed you need some pressure to control but not blow a hole. i’ve done lampwork glassblowing. did tank glass for fun a few times. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/13 "2014-05-12T23:23:04Z")
Glassblower here. The pipe is about 4 feet long, the bore is about 1/4 inch, ang hot glass has the viscosity of molasses. Sucking is not a hazard to your health so much as a hazard to the piece you’re working on (although there are occasions and techniques where you actually do want to suck). ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-inhaling-while-blowing-glass-dangerous/688141/14 "2014-05-13T00:22:04Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > Glassblower here. The pipe is about 4 feet long, the bore is about 1/4 inch, ang hot glass has the viscosity of molasses. Sucking is not a hazard to your health so much as a hazard to the piece you’re working on (although there are occasions and techniques where you actually do want to suck). That means there is about 2.4 cubic inches of air in the tube and as the average breath is 30 cubic inches (up to ten times that for a very deep one), there is a real concern about getting air that was in the glass. Hopefully the tube has cooled it.