Is teak wood poisonous to horses?

Answer 1

I developed some kind of "condition" for lack of better terminology some months back, during last winter actually, whereby I am now pretty much able to bet that at least on two days out of any given week I am going to have an unbelievably aggravating runny nose, possibly burning eyes, and these symptoms present or not, I'll be overcome with sneezing fits two or three times during those days, or more often.

I've never been bothered with Asthma or Allergies, like hay fever and the like, and due to the onset of these symptoms I had a complete allergy workup done and the only "hit" out of a battery of 50 or so typical allergens we found was a slight allergy to dust mites. Since nothing had changed in my home environment, I tried to trace back what I might have done or been exposed to that could have had those kinds of effects on my respiratory system, and the only thing I could recollect was that a number of times in a fairly poorly ventilated area, and without a respirator, I cut and sanded various pieces of teak, which operations generated quite a bit of teak dust.

I asked the allergenist if the teak dust could be the culprit, and his reply, way too glibly I thought was, "Oh, sure - that's probably it!". It was one of those things where his response just came too quickly and easily; it seemed as if he was stumped and was happy to have something to say, even if it was wrong.

But then I stumbled on some woodworking references on the internet that discussed "toxic" woods. The whole notion of toxic woods was one I've never heard of, but teak is listed right in there with a number of other woods apparently considered to be toxic. Teak is described as a potential "sensitizer", which I believe to mean that once exposed to and sensitized by teak (dust), an individual whose constitution is subject to teak sensitization will from that point forward be *overly* sensitive to teak dust and possibly other dusts also.

I'm curious to know if I'm the only one in the pumpkin patch who didn't know about this (teak toxicity), or if it is really a pretty arcane piece of knowledge. Also if any of the real woodworkers on this site (I consider myself very much an amateur), agree that teak toxicity is a real hazard, and that my symptoms sound right for the possibility of teak sensitization.

Lastly, just so it doesn't go without saying, this is a "heads up" to all who might think about working with teak (or any other toxic woods), to be careful about wearing a good, effective respirator while doing so. I do now, always, but I may have already let some of the horses out of the barn.

found by ''kingfish''