A while back they refinished the wood floors in the aerobics room at my health club. The next time I went in, I was bowled over by the varnish fumes, strong enough to give me a headache almost immediately.
And I was wondering: isn’t this the same stuff that they warn people NOT to deliberately breathe, on pain of various short- and long-term health problems? And I’m going to spend an hour or so exercising in here, taking these fumes deep into my lungs?
Does anyone know if this is a problem? Are there different types of varnish, some of which aren’t toxic? If it is a problem, how can I know when it’s safe to go back in?
Yeah, I was at work once when we had a similar problem. I was working on the top floor of the Getty Museum highrise on Santa Monica and 4th one day when some workmen downstairs were renovating an office. They poured new liquid lacquer surfaces on a whole set of tables. What you’re supposed to do in a situation like this is hang a huge vent fan to suck all the lacquer thinner vapor outdoors. But this was a sealed glass high rise office building, with temperature and humidity controls for storing artworks. They just blew the vapor out into the hall, and it got sucked right up the elevator shaft and into the whole building. The whole building had to be evacuated, the vapors were so strong.
I wouldn’t get too alarmed at one exposure to these vapors, unless it was particularly intense, or it gave you an asthma attack or something. It takes heavy, cumulative exposure to do serious damage. Just think of the guys who work with this stuff every day.