Post #284813 by Surf tiki on Sun, Feb 11, 2007 1:16 PM

I'll check into the toxicity question when I get to work and have access to references. I suspect that it is more of a hazard to due being a respirable particle than from any chemical toxicity.

As far as the respirator, that is a tricky question. In industry the only respirators that work effectively with beards are "hood-type" ones. These are not all that readily available and they use a powered pump to supply air. If you have a thick beard you may be able to get away with wearing a N95 surgical type mask as your beard will actually act as a filter. If the toxicity of the bone is low (which is what I would suspect) this is probably adequate. You can also set up a system to pull the dust away from you using a fan (or big shop vac) with some sort of enclosure to work in.