dust extraction

[edie heller <edieh@zzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

hello all - i work primarily with white marble (bianco p., statuario,
carrara, etc) and have always had the belief (misguided???) that the dust is
not dangerous to breathe as it is primarily calcium.  i also work with
colored marble, while creating inlaid work (intarsia), but the pieces are so
small that i've never worn a mask while working.  am i fooling myself and
preparing for future lung problems?

i initially learned marble sculpting in the 70's at univ. of maryland, all
with hand tools back then, and the instructor (wow, what a character!) never
mentioned wearing masks.  i've been to italy several times over the past 12
years and have taken classes and worked in studios, alongside various
italian "artigiani" (artisans of the old school), who didn't wear masks
while sculpting with hand and/or pneumatic tools - they did wear masks
(looked like thin paper types) while they were sawing stones during the
initial blocking out period.  most of these artigiani had been doing the
same type of work their entire lives, some for 50+ years, and i assume
breathing marble dust all along.  should i chalk all this up to italian
"machismo", or is it true that white marble dust is not dangerous to
breathe?

also, what methods do you all use for dust extraction (if any)?  in italy,
they work outdoors so much that the dust doesn't seem to be a problem - one
just needs to make sure to be working away from the direction the marble
dust is blowing.  some of the larger studios have these very large (to my
eyes) pieces of equipment which involve water and air blowing and/or sucking
toward the water.  however, i'm sure these are very expensive, not to
mention they would require a studio space much larger than my tiny one.

any suggestions and comments would be much appreciated.  i love reading all
these emails and am slowly building my own archive of pertinent
correspondence.  thanks so much - edie