I manufacture toothpaste for a living. I won’t name the company or brands of toothpaste. Breathing conditions in the manufacturing department are horrible. Not only have they done nothing to fix it but it’s gotten a lot worse in the 3 years I have worked there. The dust control system they have in place is not adequate to handle the job, and at this point not working at all. We are given PAPR devices when I started they gave me a used one, it is never inspected and I was never trained how to myself. I do not believe it to be working properly, even so we are told to use them when making additions directly, but without proper dust control in the building the powders spread through the entire department. I have one small locker to put my shoes in at the end of the day , my shoes are covered in powder, I’m to use the same locker for my clothes, sometimes I inevitably believe to smell taste the powders on my clothes after get dressed. I’m not sure if the filters on the papr are not strong enough or the device is not working correctly but I’m getting bad chest pains, I feel like I smell the powders and taste them, my chest feels like it has glass in it, throat is sore, dry mouth , breathing heavy, chest pains. You can see silica and gum powders in the air and being released out of mixers constantly.

Some of the dangerous powders I’m handling include:

STPP ( Sodium triphosphate ), Silica’s AC43 , Z124, Fatty Acid , titanium dioxide, Stannous fluoride, ML35 xyloburst gum .. and this stuff called Carbopol ? Not sure what it is exactly but it appears to be AWFUL and sticks to everything especially if wet.