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Re: chalk dust (was: Boise: anyone want a smoke-ring gun?)

Larry Smith wrote:

At 12:50 AM -0700 7/22/02, Bernard Cleyet wrote:
Chalk dust is also a bit toxic.

Says who?

The MSDS for CaCO3 speaks of it as a nuisance dust.
http://panda.unm.edu/operations/Lists/MSDS_Documents/c0330.htm

One brand of chalk says even the _colored_ chalk is harmless
http://www.usg.edu/rtk/msds/MSDS4035.TXT

A student of mine told me last year of "white lung disease"
that teachers can get from chalk dust.

White lung disease, by definition, is asbestosis.

I'd never heard of it

There's a reason for that.

Is chalk better for one's health than white board pens,
fumes, and dust?

It depends. I don't think it can be worse, and it could
be a lot better. Some markers use methyl isobutyl ketone as
the solvent. I refuse to have such things anywhere near me.
http://hillbrothers.com/msds/mik.htm

Others use just ethanol. That's my favorite solvent. People
have collected a lot of data on that over the last 100,000 years.
There's reason it can be metabolized safely, in concentrations
higher than you're likely to get from a pen.