Safety issues with DIY instrument building

**This page is being compiled but there is a key warning below**

Junkdojo is a hobby site, the intention of which is to encourage visitors to engage in meaningful creative activities that have a musical or sound-generating outcome. Apart from tooling requirements, everything should be accessible by everybody in a safe and healthy manner.

In doing our 'creative junk manipulation' we work with everyday materials, found materials and those taken from different original contexts. The materials used in projects on this site are selected based on either availability or their ability to perform a function that is a product of its shape, physical composition or other properties. Use of any construction material on this site is not an endorsement of its safety. You should satisfy yourself that all materials used in construction of your instruments are safe to be used.

Some products that are standard to the instrument builder such as PVC and ABS (plastics) are under suspicion as to whether they are safe to work with or not; certainly their manufacturing is costly to the environment. These materials are legal, I'm aware of no official warnings or limitations and they are available for public sale.The official information available today says that these substances are safe and stable under normal conditions.

Vinyls (PVC) are non-biodegradable and will not break down in your body. When that stuff is in there, that's it, so do not breathe the dust.

Worse though is that PVC (and to a lesser extent ABS) produces toxic gas when heated. (Hydrogen Sulphide with PVC). If you must heat it, wear a proper mask with a fresh fine grain filter and Either heat it outdoors, in a supremely well ventilated area or not at all. The latter being the preferred.

I am preparing a webpage on issues to do with PVC and the like, please add to the discussion.

I felt it important to put up this notice as something you should be aware of

Safe junkin'

- Paul