[First911]

I work in the environmental field and have done several investigations and cleanups of former plating shops. They can be nasty. However, the biggest environmental concerns are most often the chlorinated solvents used to degrease metals prior to plating and not the plating solutions themselves.

The EPA and Cal-OSHA have calculated "acceptable" exposure doses for just about every chemical assuming a variety of different pathways: dermal contact (through your skin); inhalation, and ingestion. If you can protect these pathways, you eliminate or greatly reduce the risk of chemical exposure.

Cadmium is known carcinogen, but its toxicity is much less than other metals like hexavalent chromium or beryllium (for you high-end bicycle racers). You can eliminate almost all of the risk from handling cad-plated hardware by wearing any type of gloves (and wearing a face shield if you're grinding on them). Toxic fumes from welding metals are hands down the biggest health risk from metals. If you do a lot of welding, I'd get a half-face respirator with cartridges for metal fumes to fit under your welding hood.

The bigger health risk for the Porsche enthusiast in my opinion (aside from the extreme wallet-draining capacity of tinkering with these cars) is from volatile organic compounds contained in the gasoline, parts cleaning solvents, and paints used. The lungs are much more susceptible to damage than the skin. There is a far greater health risk from breathing brake cleaner fumes (its full of carcinogenic PCE also used as a dry cleaning solvent) in a closed garage than handling a few cad-plated nuts and bolts.

Adequate ventilation in your work space will help tremendously to reduce health risks during welding or using chemicals. Open the doors and/or use fans. Don't trust your nose because it often gets de-sensitized after prolonged chemical exposure.

If you are using a lot of chemicals, I'd wear surgical-type gloves, but make sure they are rated for chemicals. Most chemicals used in the garage will go right through the white rubber surgical gloves. Nitrile gloves (usually blue in color) are much better.

Sorry for the long post, but this is what I do all day. I'm no environmental zealot, Green Party, Sierra Clubber. I grew up washing car parts barehanded in gasoline and learned to use used motor oil for weed control by pouring it on the ground along our property boundary (thanks Pop). You can go to jail for dumping oil now - so please recycle!

I'm sure I got more chemical exposure wrenching on cars than in 20 years of working on "hazardous waste" and Superfund sites. So far, no health issues (knock on wood). Next time you see somebody in a moon suit next to a drill rig, it could be me.....