Worried about printing with Eco-Sol inks?

[Tony McD]

I don't notice the smell from my inks....but do notice some of the vinyls, etc.. have bad odors.

 

[psbc2009]

Thats the funny thing -you dont always notice the odor. Might be related to coverage, color, temps, etc. For example I got to the shop today and my wife had a fan running to remove fumes, said it was bothering her. She was printing banners with heavy ink coverage.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

Chicago, what do you do to vent?

I have 2 exhust systems, I have my printer directly into one of them and the other one I use if the fumes get to strong from screen printing or if the city inspector comes in and smells cigarette smoke, i flip it on for a few minutes and smoke is gone, lol

 

[tattoo.dan]

What about those people screen printing shirts.. isn't that stuff just as bad or worse??

Yeah I just finished screen printing all day and noticed the air looked like a Pantera concert was going on...it has a nasty smell to it as well. I am sure it can't be good!

 

[genericname]

What about those people screen printing shirts.. isn't that stuff just as bad or worse??

Shirts, generally, no. Now they have phthalate-free inks as well. I'm more concerned about the smoke generated from a dryer set too high. There are more harmful chemicals in a new, unwashed shirt, than there are in the textile inks. That being said, my rule of thumb is that if you don't think it's safe to grab a handful of something and shove it in your mouth, you should probably either vent properly, or wear a mask while working with it.

Sign inks on the other hand, with all the retarders involved... Wow, that stuff'll just straight up kill you.

 

[ColoPrinthead]

I have a copy of the report, its 30 something pages and its not digital. I'll try to copy it tonight, block out company info, and have a PDF in the next few days. I haven't had time to read it yet.

Here's a picture of the testing equipment

 

[ColoPrinthead]

Here is a download link to the report. I haven't had time to read it all and won't for another month. http://www.mediafire.com/view/?yj0qf3d0mfyf9xy

 

[genericname]

Levels look pretty good. The only one I'd be worried about is the Naphtha at 2.7ppm. Still well below any maximum levels I could find listed anywhere, but it is also a possible carcinogen.

 

[Gino]

Here is a download link to the report. I haven't had time to read it all and won't for another month. http://www.mediafire.com/view/?yj0qf3d0mfyf9xy

I could be reading this wrong, but the OP here was asking about eco-sol inks being entirely user friendly from the git-go. Most of us said not really while you said you were tested and passed with flying colors with the results of this test proving it.

Again, I could be wrong, but on your page #4, right off the bat, said you failed back in May already, had a system put in place and then still got complaints. Most of the numbers apparently fell into a level which your C&IH deemed safe. Evidently for their standards, but not everyone. You still had complaints.

There were some other discrepancies, but your C&IH ends with these conclusions might not be 100%, but it's as good as they can figure. All areas had levels, but not considered dangerous, in their opinion. However, you still have people complaining. Their part of the equation is finished by saying, there could still be a problem, but it would be an unknown to them. Yep, that makes me feel real warm and cozy.

Anyway, like mentioned, you have filters, exhaust and other things to lighten the load of direct air contamination, which is what the OP was referring to in the beginning.
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[ColoPrinthead]

I could be reading this wrong, but the OP here was asking about eco-sol inks being entirely user friendly from the git-go. Most of us said not really while you said you were tested and passed with flying colors with the results of this test proving it.

Again, I could be wrong, but on your page #4, right off the bat, said you failed back in May already, had a system put in place and then still got complaints. Most of the numbers apparently fell into a level which your C&IH deemed safe. Evidently for their standards, but not everyone. You still had complaints.

There were some other discrepancies, but your C&IH ends with these conclusions might not be 100%, but it's as good as they can figure. All areas had levels, but not considered dangerous, in their opinion. However, you still have people complaining. Their part of the equation is finished by saying, there could still be a problem, but it would be an unknown to them. Yep, that makes me feel real warm and cozy.

Anyway, like mentioned, you have filters, exhaust and other things to lighten the load of direct air contamination, which is what the OP was referring to in the beginning.
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The preliminary test was just a measurement of VOCs, without defining what kind of VOCs they were, my room initially tested as having the same VOC levels as outside of our building. The second test was more thorough, listing what was in the air and determining whether the levels of anything found were high enough to cause sickness or any health hazard.

I'm sure we could have more testing done, but I think after dropping $20k on the issue Ownership and HR is satisfied with the results they received.

I'm not sure what people are trying to blame now, but one woman who had been working from home is back in the office again. I honestly think its mental illness. It all started with her complaining, then her boss convincing everyone in the building that I was making them sick before any testing was done.

 

[Gino]

Well, here's hoping they shut up because if they continue, it's probably gonna be blamed on you and your machines..... regardless of how much anyone spends.

We had a case, where a doctor's office next door to us [our tenant] complained on occasions about the vile odors coming from our shop. We couldn't figure it out, since the buildings are next to each other but not physically connected. Months or a year goes by, then, we found in their bathroom..... must've had a vent to the outside which when our building was added on, got knocked off, but not removed. Turns out there's a small 6" opening or so which must leak some odors. They always said, you can really smell it in the bathroom and it gets out into the waiting room and so on. The odd part was, they never seemed to complain when we we heavy into printing, it was always a day or so later. Anyway, we finally evicted them..... for something else and the tenant we have now has not complained once in almost two years, and that's after I specially asked him if any odors bothered him or his staff.

Oh yeah, our printer is 100' away from this wall and divided by huge rooms and very thick walls. I can't for the life of me figure it out. I think they were just trying to get out of work and then getting paid by working from home or something.

 

[john1]

I know i read somewhere where offices with desktop printers although may not be fumey, They can cause black lung from the ink's and stuff. Who know's, Can't be nearly as worse then those who put a cancer stick directly into their mouth and start huffing away.

 

[ProWraps]

i prefer gold or silver krylon served out of a dirty paper bag myself.

 

[petesign]

I have a copy of the report, its 30 something pages and its not digital. I'll try to copy it tonight, block out company info, and have a PDF in the next few days. I haven't had time to read it yet.

Do you know how much this cost to have done? when I print banners, the air in here gets pretty thick. I am vented, but its still pretty strong.

 

[ColoPrinthead]

Do you know how much this cost to have done? when I print banners, the air in here gets pretty thick. I am vented, but its still pretty strong.

My understanding is that the more thorough of the two tests we had done was $14K. A shop I visited last week had 2 vented Vuteks and a PressVu and claimed to have had a similar test done with the same results. They were similar to Gino's situation in having concerned tenants (only in different parts of the same building).

 

[genericname]

I know i read somewhere where offices with desktop printers although may not be fumey, They can cause black lung from the ink's and stuff. Who know's, Can't be nearly as worse then those who put a cancer stick directly into their mouth and start huffing away.

The reasoning is that they're typically more enclosed spaces, make use of office equipment and cleaning supplies more often, and don't have as many complete air exchanges as a larger commercial or industrial workplace would. Airborne VOCs in homes and offices can frequently be ten times higher than those you would find in any one of our print shops. That doesn't make the lower number okay though, as different VOCs have different properties. Formaldehyde for instance, or Naphtha as mentioned above, both cause cancer, and are believed to cause cancer, respectively.

Si-denote: I'd be willing to bet that when they do figure out for certain that Naphtha causes cancer, the tolerable level will drop to that of formaldehyde's, which is 0.5ppm, I believe. This would put most of us waaaaay above the danger point.