Alex Corvinus > wrote:

>On Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:43:37 +0000 (UTC),

>>"Respiratory Toxicity of Cedar and Pine Wood"

>>http://www.trifl.org/cedar.shtml

>>You don't have to buy into it, of course. Lots of food items
>>or food grade items have some toxicity.

>Sorry, that doesn't apply. You're talking here about inhaling
>particulate cedar dust, which has little to do with volatile effluents
>in food. When I was teaching in Pharmacy school, asbestos was
>considered a nuisance particulate, and not toxic per se. Now we know
>better. Same with coal dust and cotton lint dust. Once a particulate
>nuisance, now a *respiratory* hazard. I still use cotton string for
>kitchen twine..... not toxic.

>If the volatile components of cedar are of serious concern, why would
>we use cedar oil and cedar lined closets? We use it for flea control.
>It is used by soldiers in Iraq to repel sand fleas and other
>mini-beasties. So what volatile material in cedar is toxic to mammals?

>Alex, curious.

The link above alleges that cedar chips (not dust) can be harmful
to mammals due to plicatic acid. There may be no significant
volatility of this substance at room temp, but perhaps it is
driven off if one if heating a cedar plank. Perhaps if you
are doing this all the time, in a workplace such as a restaurant,
the exposure adds up. Perhaps this is why restaurants are
not doing the cook-on-cedar thing, as a workplace safety thing.

My copy of CRC does not list the boiling point of this compound.

Steve