Details save lives when redoing tub

LITTLE ROCK — A recent warning about a chemical stripper often used to refinish bathtubs raises a red flag about using chemical products improperly.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert about the dangers of using paint strippers containing methylene chloride in tub refinishing. The risk is to the person doing the work, not to anyone using the tub later.

The products were linked from 2000 to 2011 to 13 deaths of people who used them to remove old finishes from bathtubs without adequately protecting themselves from the vapors, which can cause people to pass out and interfere with their breathing.

One problem is that people sometimes use the products without heeding the label warnings, said Dr. Kenneth D. Rosenman, chief of Michigan State University’s Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and an author of the alert. What’s more, the products are often used for purposes they’re not intended or labeled for.

All 13 deaths happened in unventilated residential bathrooms, the report said. The victims either weren’t wearing protective equipment, including a respirator, or their equipment was inadequate.

Bathtub refinisher Wayne Crawford said he’s encountered that kind of carelessness many times, often among cut-rate contractors who take shortcuts to lower costs.

Crawford, who owns WAC Resurfacing in Akron, Ohio’s Firestone Park, said he uses strippers containing methylene chloride sparingly and only occasionally.

“It is nasty, nasty stuff,” he said.

Usually he scrapes off old tub finishes by hand rather than using a faster chemical stripper, he said. When he does have to use one, he makes sure to ventilate the area properly and uses eye and skin protection as well as a fresh air transfer unit, a more sophisticated version of a respirator that uses a compressor to draw fresh outdoor air to his lungs.

Six of the stripping products used by the 13 people who died were marketed for removing aircraft coatings. The rest were for use on wood, metal, glass or masonry.

Some of the products are commonly found in hardware stores. Rosenman said he walked into a hardware store recently and saw the product that killed one of the victims, a do-it-yourselfer from Michigan.

Rosenman said he thinks methylene chloride strippers shouldn’t be used in bathrooms. He also noted that none of the strippers involved was labeled for use on bathtubs, which he believes raises a case for better regulation.