: Yes, I wear gloves and a long sleave shirt. I understand that working with
: epoxy presents certain hazards and I protect myself according to the
: supplier's instructions. (Raka)

: Raka makes no mention of inhalation hazard and West has this to say:
: "Breathing highly concentrated epoxy vapor can irritate the
: respiratory system and cause sensitization. At room temperature, epoxy
: vapors are unlikely to be highly concentrated." The West page gives
: the example of boat interior as a place where high concentrations of
: vapors might be encountered. That's OK, I wasn't planning to join the deck
: to the hull till spring, outdoors, wearing a respirator. I don't think
: that 24 oz. of epoxy in a 1200 sqft. house would cause a high
: concentration of vapors.

Hi Mark

Have you worked around epoxy ( RAKA to be specific ) in any other instances..?
I would test it..... mix some and spread it on some scrap and then leave it alone in there all day../..night. Just to see what affects, if any, it has on you...

Reason I say this: I had a neighbor lady and her husband stop by while I was gluing some joints on a skin boat once.. I wasn't using a mask and was O.K. The neighbor lady was in the house 15 minutes and started coughing, it got worse until it was violent and she couldn't get her breath. ( she's a smoker, so we thought it was just some sort of attack..) but then I remembered some of the warnings on epoxy and told her to get out of my house... she was a bit shocked, but went outside. Within 5 minutes she was perfectly normal. So, I asked her to come back in... and the whole thing repeated itself.. she had a violent reaction to the epoxy, which was far less that coating a boat... it was just a 1 or 2 teaspoon batch on some joints, in another room.

Everyone seems to react differently.. so, double check to see if it affects you in that sort of environment.
When I covered my canoe hull in my closed up garage, breathing it for an hour, I got light headed to a small degree.. and it cleared up as soon as I went outside and took in some fresh air... I was also using RAKA, not that the brand name would make a difference.. they are basically very similar.

It's always a good idea to test before subjecting yourself to a full covering job.

Rehd
From the Left Coast