Timothy J. Wood on sat 15 apr 06
I've been reading up on kiln venting since we are considering
building a
small studio as we rebuilt our small garage. One of the issues I'm
looking
at is venting. The messages I've seen indicate that venting is
primarily
for removing carbon monoxide from the studio (and possibly sulfur
compounds
in some clay bodies). This seems eminently reasonable.
My question is more on the effect of vending fumes into the
neighborhood.
How stinky is it going to be for bisque and glaze firings (we are
looking at
electric cone 10)? What health effects are there for various
glazes? I'd
feel worried about firing with copper & chromium, for example, unless
someone
knows of studies on the subject that indicate this isn't a problem.
There are lots of kids in our tightly packed neighborhood, mine
included,
so I don't want to do anything that will risk their health. Thanks
for any
information!
-tim
liz gowen on sun 16 apr 06
Tim I vented into a neighborhood and the thing I smelled the most when
firing was the stage when the wax was buring off. Other than that it was
quite faint outside with an electric kiln. I also vented directly onto =
an
arbivite plant and it never showed any signs of distress from 17 years
venting on it from 6 inches away. Once the venting is diluted in the
atmosphere the more the further away from the source I don't think there =
is
too much to worry about. Doesn't seem to travel anywhere near as far as =
that
retched fabric softner snuggles does!!!!
Liz Gowen
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Timothy J. =
Wood
Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2006 11:12 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: kiln venting in a neighborhood
I've been reading up on kiln venting since we are considering =
building a
small studio as we rebuilt our small garage. One of the issues I'm =
looking
at is venting. The messages I've seen indicate that venting is =
primarily
for removing carbon monoxide from the studio (and possibly sulfur =
compounds
in some clay bodies). This seems eminently reasonable.
My question is more on the effect of vending fumes into the =
neighborhood.
How stinky is it going to be for bisque and glaze firings (we are =
looking at
electric cone 10)? What health effects are there for various glazes? =
I'd
feel worried about firing with copper & chromium, for example, unless
someone knows of studies on the subject that indicate this isn't a =
problem.
There are lots of kids in our tightly packed neighborhood, mine =
included,
so I don't want to do anything that will risk their health. Thanks for =
any
information!
-tim
_________________________________________________________________________=
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Vince Pitelka on sun 16 apr 06
Timothy -
I appreciate your desire to be cautious, and it is very good of you (and
your responsibility) to look out for your neighbors and their children, but
there is absolutely no danger or concern here. If a person were to sit next
to the vent outlet from your kiln and breath in the fumes during the "water
smoking period" of a bisque-firing, they might suffer some temporary
respiratory irritation from the sulfur dioxide fumes. If you were firing
high-manganese glazes at high-fire temperature, and someone were to breath
the fumes directly from the vent outlet day after day, year after year, over
time that person would certainly experience serious toxic reactions. But
consider this - immediately upon escaping from the vent outlet, the
microscopic quantities of toxic materials that are present at different
times in the kiln exhaust are immediately mixed with huge volumes of fresh
air, and thus the concentration of potentially toxic materials drops to a
level where there is no threat at all.
If a kiln is fired in a closed room with no ventillation, you can certainly
smell the sulfur dioxide given off during the water smoking period.
Outdoors, it is unlikely that you could detect it at all, unless a person
were so foolish as to do as I described above, and I cannot imagine anyone
doing that. To avoid the possibility of children investigating your kiln
vent outlet, I suggest that you direct your vent through the roof, or else
install an elbow and a vertical extension outside the wall.
The reason that no studies have been done of the toxic threat of fumes
exhausted through kiln vents is because there is no reason to do any
studies. There has to be some shred of evidence of danger to warrant such a
study, and there is none.
Good luck -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Technological University
Smithville TN 37166, 615/597-6801 x111
vpitelka@dtccom.net, wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/
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