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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!n8emr!uncle!oink!jep
From: jep@oink.UUCP (James E. Prior)
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general,comp.sys.att,sci.electronics,sci.med
Subject: Re: re toner hazards (was Re: Conductive Dust Bunnies)
Message-ID: <41@oink.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jul 89 18:22:55 GMT
References: <1989Jun14.042949.597@ivucsb.sba.ca.us> <19512@cup.portal.com> <321@cbnewsi.ATT.COM> <1419@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> <1989Jun28.164955.3005@ziebmef.uucp>
Reply-To: jep@oink.UUCP (James E. Prior)
Organization: Random Prime Research Institute  Columbus, Ohio
Lines: 16

Some folks have mentioned that the toner stuff is probably pretty
inert, and that makes sense to me.  Something that baffles me is
why coal dust causes black lung.  It seems that coal dust is also
pretty inert.  

Is black lung caused by the impurities of coal dust (like sulfur),
or some chemical property of the almost completely, but not 
entirely inert carbon, or just the mechanical presence of the
stuff regardless of how chemically inert.  

Not knowing how coal dust causes black lung, I could see how
breathing toner dust could cause black lung.  I expect that you'd
have to breath a lot of it over a long time.  I've never seen
a copier repairer's face blackened like that of a miner's.  
-- 
Jim Prior    jep@oink    osu-cis!n8emr!oink!jep    N8KSM