# Don't Say You Haven't Been Warned:  Drill Bits Cause Cancer!



## Nogoingback (Sep 18, 2018)

Just received a package from Travers with some new tools:




The madness just never stops...


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## JimDawson (Sep 18, 2018)

I'm going to try not to eat them anymore.


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## Superburban (Sep 18, 2018)

I could agree with the reproductive harm, if you are not careful with how you use them.


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## Z2V (Sep 18, 2018)

Yeah, be careful while lap drilling........


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## dlane (Sep 18, 2018)

Just don’t touch them


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## pontiac428 (Sep 18, 2018)

If you inhale finely ground chromium while sharpening bits, you can get cancer. It doesn’t take years of working in a factory from a Charles Dickens novel to do it, either. While you're waiting for the oncologist's results, you could nibble on the ends of the bits and be alright. Eating Cr is not a health risk on its own.

Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk


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## ericc (Sep 18, 2018)

Is that where the cancer risk is from?  Chromium?

I just did another stupid metal trick.  I picked up these nice 3M scotchbrite wheels.  I love them; they are nice no-nonsense abrasives which do what they are supposed to.  After buffing some nicks on a teaspoon, there seems to be an objectionable metallic taste, but only on the buff marks.  Do these need to be passivated?

Or is it mysterious rust preventer?  Sometimes, these tools smell a little suspicious.


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## FOMOGO (Sep 18, 2018)

I think it may have to do with the cosmolene like coating applied for rust protection during shipping. Warning!! lap drilling may cancel out any future need of lap dancing.  Mike


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## Nogoingback (Sep 18, 2018)

dlane said:


> Just don’t touch them




I wasn't planning on it...


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## Mitch Alsup (Sep 18, 2018)

My bet is on the cosmolene........


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## Janderso (Sep 18, 2018)

California has their own special level of hysteria. We are to put bold signs in the waiting area, the break room, customer entry points, the shops, the parts display area etc.
Read these signs and do not hold me responsible.
OOPS, is this political? No it's not. I'm OK.


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## Eremius (Sep 18, 2018)

If I don't go to California I have so much less risk of getting cancer!


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## RJSakowski (Sep 18, 2018)

There is a direct correlation between breathing air and dying from cancer.  Conversely, no one who has never breathed air has died from cancer.

The bad actor regarding chromium is hexavalent chromium (Cr VI).  It is a highly oxidized form of chromium which is also highly reactive.  Chromium became a poster child when Erin Brockovich sued Pacific Gas & Electric for contaminating wastewater with Cr VI.  Julia  Roberts made the case notorious in her depiction of Brockovich and the lawsuit in the film of the same name. 

It has since been assumed (erroneously, IMO) that all forms of chromium are carcinogenic.  I take 90 micrograms of chromium every day in my multivitamin tablets which is considered to be 76% of my minimum daily requirement.  I've been doing so for thirty years.


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## Norseman C.B. (Sep 18, 2018)

I take a prescribed chromium tablet every day to combat muscle cramping,and yet I live !!!!
Purely out of spite for the most part .........


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## pontiac428 (Sep 18, 2018)

...but swallowing Cr(II) vs. inhaling Cr(VI) are not the same.  Cr is a carcinogenic hazard when inhaled, because it causes cancer in the bronchioles and lungs.  It's not the same route of exposure, kinda like thumbing a suppository into place vs. snorting drill bit dust off of a mirror.  Just sayin'.

A benzene warning on gasoline is not unwarranted; benzene is nasty throughout your system.  Hence the carcinogenicity ratings at the top of the category across all agencies.  But to think that gas companies are going to let a commodity chemical feedstock like benzene enter their fuel fractions is silly!  That chemical is worth more money elsewhere.  Nowadays benzene is a trace contaminant in fuels.


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## MozamPete (Sep 18, 2018)

Sometimes I see these posts and I’m glade I live in Africa - by the time all this starts to hit here i’ll be long dead


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## dlane (Sep 18, 2018)

Janderso, where are the Spanish, Taiwan, Chinese, and all the other non English warning signs?.


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## e189552 (Sep 18, 2018)

One of my firearm and accessory suppliers issued an announcement that they would no longer ship products of any kind to California because of Prop 65.


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## samthedog (Sep 18, 2018)

e189552 said:


> One of my firearm and accessory suppliers issued an announcement that they would no longer ship products of any kind to California because of Prop 65.



They should change their business model to shipping warning signs to California.

Paul.


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## GunsOfNavarone (Sep 18, 2018)

If you eat a drill bit, you will have more immediate problems than cancer...
I grind a lot of silicon bronze and i try to wear AT LEAST a face shield if not a dust mask..I'm too afraid to look up issues with that. I stopped smoking 3.5 years ago, "so i got that going for me....which is nice..."


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## westerner (Sep 18, 2018)

Janderso said:


> Read these signs and do not hold me responsible.


Indeed, no one in the govt. of Cal will be held responsible either! I remember the warning from a few years back-" Warning!- The State of California has determined that saliva causes cancer. But only when swallowed in small amounts, over a long period of time." Kidding, but ya get the feeling....


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## Jake2465 (Sep 18, 2018)

I think we will be alright as long as we don't ground the drill bits up into a fine powder and make a coke line out of it and snort the stuff with a used coolant sprayer line.


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## SamI (Sep 19, 2018)

Maybe you should ask your supplier for an MSDS sheet and see what they say?


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## SamI (Sep 19, 2018)

The above was meant as a joke but out of curiosity I googled it and a few results popped up!



I especially like the recommendations should one inhale a drill bit.  It's OK though, as long as we stand outside afterwards we should be OK!  Medical help should only be sought if large quantities have been ingested.  I wonder what they consider to be large quantities?


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## Nogoingback (Sep 19, 2018)

"Primary Routes Of Entry"? 
Doesn't sound good.   I think I need to send them back to Travers.


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## eugene13 (Sep 19, 2018)

Nogoingback said:


> "Primary Routes Of Entry"?
> Doesn't sound good.   I think I need to send them back to Travers.


Chrome 6 was a big enough concern where I used to work that the company bought a water jet.  Hi everybody, summer's over and I'm back.


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## killswitch505 (Sep 19, 2018)

Looks like quit smoking for nothing


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## Nogoingback (Sep 19, 2018)

killswitch505 said:


> Looks like quit smoking for nothing




Not at all.  The money you save by not buying smokes can be spent on more tools.  

Oh, wait, I guess that won't help after all.


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## killswitch505 (Sep 19, 2018)

Nogoingback said:


> Not at all.  The money you save by not buying smokes can be spent on more tools.
> 
> Oh, wait, I guess that won't help after all.


Still broke and prolly have cancer lol but tools over cigarette butts any day


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## nnam (Sep 20, 2018)

Superburban said:


> I could agree with the reproductive harm, if you are not careful with how you use them.



That's no joke 

https://nypost.com/2018/08/21/ufc-fighter-tore-his-scrotum-with-a-power-drill/


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## pstemari (Sep 22, 2018)

Cobalt drills, I assume. The dust from sharpening them is problematic, but aside from that it's the usual Prop. 65 blunderbuss warning—technically accurate but in practice totally useless.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk


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## hman (Sep 23, 2018)

Sorta like the old joke about Microsoft help files, eh wot?


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## Janderso (Oct 11, 2018)

If you use Kryptonite drill bits it off sets the affects of cobalt.


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## Janderso (Oct 15, 2018)

I have been warned. I am done having children-no problem.
.


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## rcornell (Oct 15, 2018)

Nogoingback said:


> Just received a package from Travers with some new tools:
> 
> View attachment 275709
> 
> ...


That warning is all about the glue on the back of the warning sticker.


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