Wood dust

The term wood describes the material provided by the part of the trees' trunk and branches that is found underneath the rind.
Wood's constituents can be divided into common constituents (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin in a percentage greater than 95%) and particular constituents (flavone, quinone, terpene, paraffin, tannin, saponin, alkaloid and glucoside) that can be extracted with different organic solvents, according to the tree's species.
Wood is employed as raw material for the production of paper, for the production of cellulose for the textile industry, for natural gum, resin and some dye extraction. Its main use is in the manufacture of window and door frames, casings and furniture. Because of the growing costs of solid wood, in the furniture production there is a growing employment of substitutive semi-manufactured DERIVATI, obtained by the mixture and thermic pressure of wooden sheets or fibres with the addition of adhesives and/or resins.
Wood, or more often wood dust deriving from wood manufacture, targets the respiratory system and the skin. Wood affects them through toxic, irritating and sensitizing mechanisms.
In the following table the main risks linked to the main wood types employed in Italy are reported.

Toxic action (glucoside, saponin, quinone, ect.)	Irritant action	Sensitizer action
Mansonia Rosewood Asian teak	Mansonia Western red cedar Mahogony Fir Chestnut Rosewood	Asian teak Western red cedar Fir Mansonia Rosewood Mahogony Poplar Chestnut Oak Bay-oak

The toxic action is rather rare and involves general symptoms (arrhythmias, hyperpyrexia, oliguria) determined by some of the particular constituents (such as glucoside and saponin) contained in fresh wood.
The irritating action causes acute alterations of the ocular mucosa and of the upper respiratory tract (conjunctivitis, sinusitis, laryngotracheitis). As the exposure continues these clinical pictures may become chronic. In workers exposed for more than 10 years a reduction in mucociliar clearance of the nose has been shown. The sensitizing action rarely involves the skin (contact dermatitis) but on the contrary it usually affects the respiratory system (bronchial asthma). In some cases a clear immunological pathogenesis (type I) has been demonstrated , whilst in other cases the pathogenesis remains unclear. For some types of wooden dust (mansonia, fir, oak, bay-oak, ect.) allergic forms of asthma have been described.
Wood painting (with paint brush or spray) can provoke clinical manifestations because of contact with monomers (in particular isocyanates) and with a number of solvents (xilene, n-hexane, heptane, cyclohexane, ect).

General services

Carpentry

Wood dust