Gassing off concerns

LandToSea

New member
We are a small niche mailer for our data clients who mails about 500k pieces/yr. We perform this from a home based office, and store mailers from 10 clients all coming from different printers in a dedicated space in the house. The workspace, storage and living are all in the same air conditioning space with no special air exchange systems in place. Given that, we live in S FL with high humidity and heat so we do not get to air out the indoor space often, literally a few times a year. Some mailers have a distinct off gassing smell more than others upon delivery and we will usually let those sit on the covered patio for a while to air out the best they can in their cases before bringing them inside. Since they are enclosed tightly in boxes the ability to air out is limited. Given all of that, my wife is at the house at almost all times operating the business and living there, probably >90% of her living hours. She is operating the tabbing and addressing equipment for at least 4 hours a day and exposed to the resulting production dust in addition to any unknown gases. We have been operating this business for almost 10y and for about 8y she has been ill. She has had every test imaginable and outside of identifying a suppressed immune system nothing can be identified. She has near persistent upper respiratory infections, mostly sinuses. She has been wearing a paper dust mask while operating the machines for the past few months, but this has not improved the symptoms.

I am trying to eliminate variables in potential causes to her symptoms and removing the inventory from the house would require a costly build of a detached storage unit on our property. Before I jump to the commitment of resources blindly I was hoping that the community here could offer some insight into what, if any, known concerns with printed materials are possible that I can attempt to identify. Questions of materials in media or ink or coatings that I may be particularly interested in identifying with the printers? Any and all constructive responses are greatly appreciated!
 
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Take her to a reputable specialist in allergies and upper respiratory illness. A GOOD one. And make sure you tell exactly what the situation is.

We are dealing with chemicals in the printing trade and every person is different in his severity of reaction to exposure to chemicals.

The one thing I'll say is likely is that if she's sensitive to this stuff she might need to get away from it. A big decision, but I've known people whose health improved immensely after leaving our "fair and blessed trade".

Our older members most likely remember back to the 1970's when carbonless paper was so filled with stuff, that some pressmen had asthma attacks and got hives from the paper.
 
Take her to a reputable specialist in allergies and upper respiratory illness. A GOOD one. And make sure you tell exactly what the situation is.

We are dealing with chemicals in the printing trade and every person is different in his severity of reaction to exposure to chemicals.

The one thing I'll say is likely is that if she's sensitive to this stuff she might need to get away from it. A big decision, but I've known people whose health improved immensely after leaving our "fair and blessed trade".

Our older members most likely remember back to the 1970's when carbonless paper was so filled with stuff, that some pressmen had asthma attacks and got hives from the paper.

Thank you for the input! She has seen a good ENT/Allergist, but I don't think she went into detail about the working/home situation. I will accompany her on the next visit.
 
It may be a long shot, but have you narrowed it down to a particular supplier? If so ask what inks they use, see if they are willing to try a different ink that may be lower in VOC's. Having transitioned from an offset to an all digital shop a few years ago you really notice the different smells now when we farm out offset runs.
 
It may be a long shot, but have you narrowed it down to a particular supplier? If so ask what inks they use, see if they are willing to try a different ink that may be lower in VOC's. Having transitioned from an offset to an all digital shop a few years ago you really notice the different smells now when we farm out offset runs.

No, I wasn't even sure if there is a possibility of concern which is why i posted. I figured that if printers are working with these chemicals all day/every day they would know the most about exposure outcomes. I know which smell the most which I could try to isolate from I guess.
 
I found a bunch of documentation from a UK regulatory body (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/pseries.htm) about how printers should deal with the chemicals and odors involved in printing. Most of the advice involving odors seems to involve making sure there is adequate ventilation and air exchange so that employees are not exposed to concentrated amounts of these gases for prolonged amounts of times. I didn't read through everything...but I'm thinking getting that stuff out of your house might be a good idea.
 
I found a bunch of documentation from a UK regulatory body (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/pseries.htm) about how printers should deal with the chemicals and odors involved in printing. Most of the advice involving odors seems to involve making sure there is adequate ventilation and air exchange so that employees are not exposed to concentrated amounts of these gases for prolonged amounts of times. I didn't read through everything...but I'm thinking getting that stuff out of your house might be a good idea.

Thanks! Looking at the single Asthma doc http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/p46.pdf it seems isocyanates is the biggest concern which neither of the SDS provided from 2 suspect printings list specifically. I will need to research if an ingredient may fall into the class of isocyanates. I am ordering a POD to move the inventory into for 2 months to run a trial to see is she feels better. I will also push for her to wear respiratory dust mask while running production since there is significant "paper dust" produced which processing the mailers.
 

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