🐝 What PPE Should You Wear for Oxalic Acid Sublimation?

Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Now, do not vape your bees until you've watched every last second of this video. Now, it's not every day that I start a video like that with such a direct warning, but what I'm going to talk about in this video is really, really important, and you need to make sure that you're protecting yourself from the dangers of oxalic acid. Now oxalic acid is a substance that's used within beekeeping to treat for varroa. So when we find a colony that's suffering due to varroa, or we try and target them in a broodless period over winter, we sublimate oxalic acid and that kills the varroa mite. It's incredibly effective and it doesn't really impact the bees too much. What it does though is it can severely damage your health. Oxalic acid is a poison, and if you were to ingest between 15 to 30 grams of oxalic acid, that is a fatal dose. So what we're dealing with here is a toxic poison, and when you sublimate that oxalic acid and you put it up into the air, if you breathe that in and get it down onto your lungs, it can have long-lasting health impacts. So what I'm going to show you in this video is how to protect yourself from oxalic acid, I'm going to talk to you about what personal protective equipment to wear as an absolute minimum. I'm going to talk to you about the filters that you need to protect you from organic gases, and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the difference between a full face mask and a partial face mask. So like I said, please watch this video right the way through to the very end and make sure that you fully protect yourself from the dangers of oxalic acid. So this is the mask that I've been using over the past 3 years of sublimating oxalic acid. You can see it, it's been well worn and it is an effective tool. I've sent this link out to a few people as well saying this is the mask that I use, and unfortunately I have actually stopped using this mask now. And the reason that I've stopped using this mask isn't because it's dangerous or it's posing any risk to my health. In fact, I'm still using the same filters and vapor cartridges that are on here on a new mask that I've got. The reason I've stopped using it though is because it just unreliable in terms of fogging up. And I find with these full face masks, when you buy them, I think they must have some sort of anti-fog coating on the inside of them. So at the beginning they're okay, but I find I'm doing the majority of my sublimation late on in the year. I'm doing it when it's cold. I sweat, I get a warm head, and as soon as I put this full face mask on, I get fogged up visor. And it makes The whole process very, very difficult, and it means that I'm constantly taking it off, trying to put it back on again, trying to wipe the inside, and it means that I'm inadvertently exposing myself to oxalic acid in a sublimated form. So although the full face mask does seem like the belt and braces option, and it seems like it's going to provide a better seal all the way around your face, for me personally, I have actually moved away from them now. Because I find the issues that I have with fogging up means that when I need to take it off, I have to take the whole mask off and I'm not continuing to protect my lungs when I want to be able to see properly. So what I've moved over to is a half-face mask. And again, this is made by 3M. I've got the correct filter cartridges and I'll run through all of that later on in the video. This gives a really, really nice fit. So what I've done with this is I've not bought all of these items together, I bought them completely separately, and you need to make sure that you're getting the right size to fit your face. So this mask comes in 3 variants. I'll stick a little list up there now. They do a small, a medium, and a large. Obviously I went for the large. I'm 6'2, I've got a big massive meathead, so I always go for everything in large, or if I'm wearing a cap, I go for extra large. So I'll stick all the links up for these products here. I'll stick my Amazon Associate links up at the bottom of this video as well. Please, if you're interested in getting these products, buy them through the Amazon Associate links and we get a small commission for every purchase you make. I bought these items direct from Amazon. The whole kit cost me about £75, but each of the different items cost a different amount because I bought them all separately. But we'll run through all of the links and all of the pricing again at the end of the video. So the face mask has got a really nice simple design. It's got this top strap here that you put over your head like that, and it's got a top and bottom band, and that sits on the top of your head and the back of your head, and that means it's a really nice comfortable fit. And then at the back, you've got this simple strap that's really easy to do behind your head like that. So you've effectively got 3 points of contact. You've got something to hold it onto the back of your head, and you've got a point up here to hold it upwards so it's not slipping down. The whole point of this mask is that you get a really good seal all the way around. Eyes are incredibly important to protect using oxalic acid, and I've got some goggles to do that as well. But really, the most important thing in my opinion for long-term health damage is protecting your lungs. You need to make sure that you've got a nice fitting mask and that it's comfortable to wear. So hopefully you can hear me a little bit better than when I was in the full face mask. As you can see, that fits really nicely on my head. I've got full measurement here. I've got that to the exact right depth, but you can pull these in, pull these out, get that nice and tight to your face. And then you've got these straps at the back, and they just connect together like that, and then you can adjust it. And now that is in a completely perfect position. I'll just show you at the back as well. So you've got the strap on the top of your head here, You've got the strap on the back of your head, and then you've got your neck strap down there as well that's holding it on. 3 points of contact. Now, if you want to tighten it, you can pull these bits here. That will bring it in, and that's giving me now a really, really good seal all the way along my face. Right, so if you're looking for the model number for the mask, this one is the 3M reusable face mask, and this is the 6300 version. So that is the large. So if you're looking for the medium, that's the 6200 version, and if you're looking for the small, that's the 6100 version. Now the reason that I bought that separate from the filters is because in a lot of the kits it doesn't give you the correct filter to protect you from oxalic acid gases. And what you're looking for in those filters is a filter that's going to prevent organic gases coming through the filter. And then the filters that I've gone for come in a complete kit. So you get the cartridge filter, you get a particulate filter, and then you get a retainer to hold it all together. So it's effectively 3 products in one. You've got the cartridge that is a 6059 cartridge to protect against organic gases and vapor. I've then got a P3 particulate matter filter over the top that stops any larger particulates getting through. and then you've got the retainer sitting on top of that. And by buying them separately, it means that you're getting the correct type of filter. Please don't use a coronavirus face mask. Please don't use a bog-standard painting face mask that you're going to get in Screwfix. Make sure that you do the research and make sure that you're buying the correct filter to effectively filter out organic gases and vapour. And this product here, the 6059 from 3M, That's the filter that you're looking for. So these all click apart. These are fully replaceable. So as soon as you use these, I use one per season for these. I don't take any risks. The filter there, they cost about £25 to £30. The price does fluctuate on Amazon. I make sure that I've always got a nice fresh set of these every year. They don't last forever. I don't do a huge amount of oxalic acid sublimation, probably one or two sessions a year. If you're doing more than that, you need to make sure that you change these out regularly. Please don't think that once you've got this connected, that's it, you're good to go for years. These do block up. They're not reusable, as in you can't go and clean them and refresh them. As soon as they're full, you need to dispose of them responsibly, but you need to dispose of them to get a new clean filter in there so that you're protecting your lungs. They're really easy to put together though. You've got a nice silicone gasket there, And then these clip on really well. You just need to make sure that the larger gap there is where you're going onto. I've broken my old one by doing this. The 3 prongs there, they're actually different sizes. Just make sure that you line it up to the bigger one, and then it's a quarter turn twist. Not even that, maybe an 8th of a turn twist, and you feel it lock into position. Do not use this mask unless you get that adequately fitted. If it's not clicked into position like that, Or the gasket's not in place, you've not got an adequate seal. Now, in order to test this, put this onto your head, get it nice and tight, and when you suck in, you should feel it click. There's a click every single time, and that shows that the product is working properly. Now, it's not like a mechanical click. All it shows is that there's a seal in place. You, when you get this product, you'll know what I mean. You can feel the seal. there's any free access of air and you're not getting that seal, then you need to return this product because it's probably faulty. So just make sure you put the filters on correctly, you don't break the plastic tabs, you fit it correctly to your head, and then you get that seal on each and every breath. Now you might be thinking I've completely neglected to protect my eyes, and I haven't. So I've gone with a 3M face mask as well, and the reason that I've gone with the 3M face mask in terms of eye protection is that I wanted it to be compatible with the mask. And it does say on the 3M website that these are compatible in terms of the nose shape, because some of the masks come down a little bit further on the nose. I wanted to make sure that they slot together correctly. Now I've gone with these because they offer apparently the best fog protection that you can get. Now I've used these a couple of times already, and unfortunately you do get a slight little bit of fogging still. But what I've done is I've ordered 2 pairs of these. So all I need to do now, if I've got my full face mask on and I become fogged up, I can take my eye protection off, my lungs are still protected, and I can put the other pair on that haven't got the fogging. And that was what was really slowing me down, and that was what was really causing me to have additional exposure to oxalic acid by using the full face mask. So these are a really simple set of eye goggles. You've got a Full seal all the way around, although there's probably a couple of gaps. Most importantly though, it offers really, really good protection in terms of oxalic acid. Whenever I'm wearing these, and I've done a couple of trials in these already with the oxalic acid, nothing gets into my eyes and the fogging is very minimal compared to the face mask. So in terms of the 2 products together, and I hope you can hear me okay, it's such a better system for me. I find I'm so much more comfortable like this. I've not got the full face mask on, I've got full visibility, I'm fully protected on my mouth and any inhalation from oxalic acid, but I've got full visibility as well. And for me, that's so important when you're doing your oxalic acid sublimation because it needs to be a relatively enjoyable experience and you need to keep the face mask on. All the time. Just taking it off once and getting a big gulp of oxalic acid could do real, real damage. And the final piece of PPE, maybe you've noticed it— gloves. Do not get oxalic acid on your hands as a solution, as a sublimate, or as a powder. It's incredibly corrosive. It's used as a wood bleach, so they use that to get stains out of wood such as oak and pine. It's incredibly effective as a bleaching agent. And it really, really burns your skin. Of course, your eyes are very important. You don't want any solution, powder, or sublimate going into your eyes. We've spoken about the lungs, how important it is to protect your lungs from any of that vapor going in. But make sure you're covered from head to toe. All your arms are covered, your hands are covered by using gloves. Don't get it anywhere on your body. Oxalic acid will give you horrible burns, so make sure you use adequate protection. And that's it for the video. I hope you've made it all the way through to the end of this video, as it's probably the most important video that I'm ever going to do, and it gives you really good solid protection from what is a horrible substance that we use in beekeeping. So please take adequate precautions to protect your hands, your skin, your eyes, and your lungs. I've given you a list of all of the products that I use there, links to the Amazon website to purchase it, which obviously helps support the channel. but it gives you the exact product and it makes sure you're using the correct filters to adequately protect yourself. So as always, I hope you've enjoyed this video, but more importantly, I hope you protect yourself by using the advice in this video. Please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.