Acute respiratory illness and aerosolized waterproofing products

Acute respiratory illness and aerosolized waterproofing products

04/03/2006

The Michigan Department of Community Health and Michigan's two poison control centers have just issued an advisory to Michigan hospital Emergency Departments because of reports of over 100 cases of respiratory illness associated with exposure to certain aerosolized waterproofing products in Michigan. The advisory and a fact sheet for the public can been viewed at

http://www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,1607,7-132-2945_5105-13050--,00.html

scroll to the bottom of the page and view items in the section "waterproofing products"

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating these reports. This outbreak appears to be related to two specific products (Jobsite Heavy Duty Bootmate® and Rocky Boot Weather and Stain Protector®), but there have been a number of other clusters of chemical pneumonitis over the past ten years in the United States and Europe that were associated with similar waterproofing products, all of which apparently included a fluoropolymer in their formulation. Physicians should report all patients with this illness to their poison control center at 1-800-222-1222. This will enable the national poison center database to be used to conduct enhanced surveillance for this problem.

http://www.health.state.mn.us/han/archive/2006hanarchive.html

thats kind of random. Is this people that are just applying the stuff? or people that are huffing the stuff? Anything with a teflon type base in it can be very bad for your lungs if you burn it or if you inhale too much of it, but is mostly safe to apply to your boots as that doesn't take much. If you have a bird you'll want to do it in the other room as they are more sensitive to such things.