Quote:
Originally Posted by BeltSanderRocks
Just a word of warning, when we were cutting our regolith to fit in a corner of our workspace, the powder and fumes that were created caused some of our students to become a tad bit nauseous. I do not think anything major happened, but if you have a sensitive stomach you may want to stay clear from the regolith when drilling/cutting/sanding it.
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It's fibreglass. Don't breathe it in. Your stomach is the least of your concerns.
The silica from the fibres is probably a weak carcinogen and lung irritant (I say probably, because I don't know if the fibre shards are the right shape to embed themselves in lung tissue). The resin matrix isn't health food, but should be reasonably safe if you keep the temperature down so it doesn't decompose (i.e. don't cut it with a fast tool that will overheat it and generate fumes).
A NIOSH N95 mask is a minimum requirement; they're dirt-cheap. A respirator isn't a bad idea either.
Incidentally, the same goes for teams that use fibreglass structural extrusions—take appropriate dust-abatement measures.