Dust from soapstone

[gary grossman <grossman@zzzzzzzzz>]

Dear Listers, some soapstone does contain asbestos, so you need to be
careful when carving.  I've heard it said that the asbestos comes in
long white flakes/veins running through the stone, and I have seen these
myself in steatite and alberene.  I'm not sure about talc soapstone, but

I wouldn't take any chances, although I'll admit to not wearing a mask
at times myself.  I do know that some soapstone is claimed to be
asbestos-free, but I wonder how that is determined and how frequently
they assay the stone?  There seems to be quite a bit of variability in
how folks respond physiologically to stone dust.  We live ~40 miles from
the granite capital of the US and I asked my allergist/pulmonologist
about dangers of stone dust and he said that he rarely sees patients
with problems.  We're talking about professional granite carvers here,
mostly quarrymen and monmument makers.  (Our town has the nearest set of
lung docs.) I don't know if that's because they have good safety
procedures (doubt it, especially historically) or if the granite is
different from other types around the country. Nonetheless, I wouldn't
take any chances, we do know that inhaling granite dust can kill, and I
suspect that is also true for carving stones that have some impurities
that are non-metabolizable (inclusions in alabaster or marble), even if
the main matrix is matabolizable.  Well just my two cents worth. cheers, g2

--
Gary D. Grossman

G. Grossman Fine Art
http://www.negia.net/~grossman/

Professor of Animal Ecology
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~grossman/

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