Klarinet Archive - Posting 000871.txt from 2003/02

From: CBA <clarinet10001@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Wood allergies (to Lelia)
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 22:08:14 -0500

The Klarinet list has saved my life because of this particular
thread which came up a few years ago...

I have had two rather strange allergies that I have known about
for a while, but they didn't seem to correspond to what would
have been a whole subset of allergies that I am NOT allergic to.
I am allergic to Wine and to Christmas trees.

My allergist was stumped, as we could not recreate the same
anaphylactic shock that occurred when I drank wine or was in the
presence of a live Christmas tree by the components
individually. I am not allergic to grapes, alcohol,
nitrates/nitrites, sulfites, yeast, etc...

Lelia posted a response to Walter Grabner about a cocobola blank
that made me think, and in turn with my allergist, confirm the
allergy I have that we couldn't put a finger on. When Lelia was
talking about her husband making walking canes and the allergies
that result, it all clicked into place. I am allergic to dry,
unfinished wood particles. The wine and tree allergies were
related!

The problem I have with Christmas trees only starts after a few
days, and then gets so bad that I can't be in the same room with
them as they dry out from being cut. If I came in contact with
the tree and was pricked by one of the needles of the tree, I
swelled up like a balloon.

The wine was a little harder to fully place, so here goes the
explanation...

I was never allergic to wine in college, but when you are
drinking boxed wine because it is cheap, it is quite different
from aged wine from a regular winery. It is not aged in oak. My
allergic reaction was to the ingested oak particles from
drinking better wines later in life. The small migraine was the
least of my worries. The reaction included violent nausea and
the swelling of my sinus cavities, including my nose and throat.
Not a good thing to happen.

I have since found out that the realization of the allergy being
the wood, not the wine itself DOES open up knowledge of a whole
list of things I am also allergic to, including red wine
vinegar, balsamic vinegar, sake, sherry, cognac, brandy,
whiskey, and other things I won't even begin to list. NOT
drinking these things by themselves is easy. Not eating things
cooked in these things is not as easy, especially at
restaurants. The vinegars end up in a LOT of salad dressings.
Restaurants marinate meats in wine and put wine in sauces. Even
frozen foods have gotten on the band wagon and included wines in
their sauces...ARGHHH!

Asking the waiter if one of these things is in the food has been
a hassle, at best, since many waiters ask the cook if the
alcohol is cooked out, not if there is wine in the dish. The
alcohol being burned out really just concentrates the wood
particles in the dish anyway, so it is worse. Salad dressings
for me have been reduced to dairy based ones, since they are the
only ones in a restaurant not usually including vinegar of any
type. I am not allergic to white vinegar, but asking which
vinegar is in a salad dressing would just be a pain.

Anyway, I am NOT allergic to clarinets, or the wood billets
after they are finished. I can continue my pursuit of
clari-tooting for as long as I wish with no bizarre wood allergy
to make practicing difficult. I just can't shred my clarinets if
I have a bad practice session! ;-P

I just wanted to thank Lelia for the blurb about the wood. I had
forgotten about it from the post all the way back in 2000.
Thanks again Lelia!

Kelly Abraham
Woodwinds - New York City
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--- Lelia Loban <lelialoban@-----.net> wrote:
> Dan Leeson wrote,
> > It turned out to be cocobolo, which I understand
> >is dangerous to use when making instruments
> >because the dust may cause problems. But maybe
> >that is an old-wive's tale.
>
> It's no myth. I own a cocobolo recorder, which I've played
> for years with
> no problems, although I've got a few minor allergies to other
> things.
> However, cocobolo *dust* has strong allergy-causing
> properties, similar to
> poison ivy (which doesn't always cause a rash the first time
> someone gets
> exposed to it). My husband does a bit of woodworking. He
> took
> precautions, such as wearing rubber gloves and a dust mask,
> but after
> making several walking sticks and fountain pens out of
> cocobolo, he
> developed the allergy, even though he is not allergy-prone.
> (He has no
> other allergies that we're aware of, except to poison ivy.)
> He can use his
> walking sticks, because once the wood is finished and
> polished, it no
> longer gives off dust, but he can't work in cocobolo at all
> any more,
> without a severe allergic reaction. He gets hay fever
> symptoms along with
> a bad, persistent rash on any skin the dust touches.
> Different people are
> more or less resistant to developing the allergy, but
> according to the
> doctor who treated my husband, an allergic reaction to
> cocobolo dust can be
> life-threatening for an asthmatic.
>
> Lelia Loban
> lelialoban@-----.net
> Please note new address!

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