Train Room Safety

Alright, I'm about to sound like a nagging mother but, raise your hand if you've done any of the following: used spray paint or Dulcote inside without a respirator, cut Styrofoam with a hot knife or wire without adequate ventilation, used acetone to clean your hands after a messy painting project, used solder and flux in a confined space, used a Dremel without eye protection and the list goes on. My hand went up for all of them.

Where am I going with this? Well, last march (2017) I attended the wedding of a very dear friend from college. Two years prior this friend was diagnosed with Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, a very rare, but treatable, cancer. Thankfully, my friend beat it and is now cancer free. However, without going into too much detail, there were lingering effects of the treatment, which as I write this, she is currently in surgery to help correct.

Seeing her at her wedding was a bit of a wake up all for me. For a while one of my guilty pleasures was taking my copy of Model Railroader out to the back porch and reading it while enjoying a cold beer and a cigar. I knew it wasn't the best thing for my health, but when I got home from the wedding, I opened my humidor and dumped all my cigars into the trash. I haven't smoked one since.

Then I started thinking about all the things I mentioned in the top paragraph, and how they weren't the smartest things to be doing. So I instituted a few new safety rules for the train room.

To whit:

1. All spray painting and Dulcote is done in the garage with the door open.

2. The same goes for cutting foam with hot knives and such.

3. If doing the above in the train room can't be helped, then I open the window and get a few fans blowing first.

4. I'm trying to limit my use solvent-based Floquil and Polyscale paints. Not only because of the fumes, but because as we all know, they're no longer made and when they're gone, they're gone.

5. Eye protection when using the Dremel.

6. I've also decided not to use dangerous tools when my wife isn't home. Somebody has to be able to call EMS you know.

So anyway, here's hoping my friend makes a speedy recovery.