To All: Recently saw an inquiry in the Guestbook section of
Archives from a fellow working amid smoke and fumes from wax
manufacturing of some sort. He wanted to know the dangers. I’ve
never seen that addressed, so went straight to the source of my
favorite waxes, Kindt-Collins. This is the reply, and could be of
interest to many. Pat Hicks
Dear Pat, Regarding your question on toxicity, whenever you can
possibly inhale fumes from any chemical, especially from
petrochemicals (and wax is primarily made from oil derived products)
it is advisable to properly ventilate the area. This includes exhaust
hoods over melting tanks, wax pots, etc. If you can see smoke, fumes
and vapors in the room, there is not sufficient ventilation. High
velocity exhaust fans through a wall or ceiling will usually do the
job but they have to be properly sized for the cubic volume of air in
the room to work properly! People also have to remember to turn them
on! Although wax is not considered a “toxic” product, it is, none
the less, a chemical. Fumes from chemicals should simply be avoided
whenever possible.
As an example, we have over 25 melting tanks spread out in two
separate buildings here and all of them are ventilated to the outside
through properly sized duct work with inline, power exhaust fans.
Even with all the direct ventilation, we can still get some fumes in
the work area and so we have additional, large room exhausts wherever
necessary. With all these precautions in place, I cannot recall one
single case of an inhalation related illness in any of our employees
over the forty years I’ve worked here. And some of the people in
our plant have been here as long as I have. Safety is just common
sense and, simply put, if you can see it and easily smell it, you do
not have enough ventilation!