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by AlexandrB 816 days ago
It's also under-appreciated how risky many common substances are when ground or cut. Cutting concrete, for example, can cause silicosis of the lungs[1] if precautions aren't taken. Wood dust is also potentially carcinogenic[2].

Then there's stuff like metal fume fever[3], which seems to be temporary but who knows what long term effects we'll discover in the future.

[1] https://www.elcosh.org/document/1930/d000852/Dry+Cutting+%25...

[2] https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/wood_dust.html

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_fume_fever

3 comments

The general rule of thumb should be "don't breathe dust", not regulating specific types of dust. Almost all forms of dust are bad for you.
Berylliosis is the truly unexpected one for me. Something as harmless looking as a piece of ceramic can basically wipe out your lungs
Quartz has a similar effect to concrete, too.