Author Topic: Least Irritating Smoke / Fog / Haze products on the market?  (Read 5796 times)

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lauria

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Hi Folks - been a while since I've been on the forum, but I do have a question that I thought you might be able to help me tackle.

I have multiple chemical sensitivity. For me, I have a respiratory reaction when I come in contact with many products including anything containing fragrance, anything propelled by aerosol, and harsh cleaning agents. This makes working in a theatre (and something just living in general) difficult!

I've found ways to deal with it on most occasions: avoid dressing rooms, wearing a respirator when working backstage on shows that use smoke / fog / haze (Communication can be difficult. There are many Darth Vader jokes.), using dry ice as an effect instead.

There is little that medication can do to help me control symptoms (continuous coughing, raw throat, tightness in chest, eyes itching, headache, general moodiness) and even the respirator doesn't block out all of the smoke / fog / haze.

I am looking at working another season as Production Stage Manager at the theatre I've worked at for the past three years and it is becoming important for the director to be able to use smoke / fog / haze for a show for artistic reasons. It's important for me that I'm not trying to call a show with a respirator on, and even if we sealed off the booth, I'd be trapped there for the duration of the show and unable to assist in an emergency.


So, what this brings me to is testing a variety of smoke / fog / haze products to find the most hypo-allergenic one on the market so that I hopefully won't react to it (besides plain old dry ice). Does anyone have any experience with any other sensitive person and had any positive results?
I would love to find a product that I don't react to! It would greatly open up my employment possibilities, as this sensitivity constantly causes me to ask if I should be continuing to pursue my career as a stage manager.

nick_tochelli

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Re: Least Irritating Smoke / Fog / Haze products on the market?
« Reply #1 on: Jun 06, 2012, 10:03 pm »
Look into CITC FX . They have a hypoallergenic fog/haze fluid that might be right up your ally.

http://www.citcfx.com/product_fogging_fluids.php#

Water based, not horribly expensive. They are good people there. I've had to talk to them more than a few times since I started working at my current job.

pyromnt

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Re: Least Irritating Smoke / Fog / Haze products on the market?
« Reply #2 on: Jun 09, 2012, 11:23 am »
Maybe something like this would help and it is not very invasive: http://www.filteryourlife.com/
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KMC

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Re: Least Irritating Smoke / Fog / Haze products on the market?
« Reply #3 on: Jun 11, 2012, 11:11 am »
Most hazers and foggers specify exactly which type of fluid should be used in their machines, which may make selecting an alternate fluid difficult if the hardware is already owned.

I've used the Martin Pro Haze Fluid extensively and have not encountered issues with that.  It's a water-based fluid using food grade glycols (MSDS here).  Is it specific things that irritate you, or is it any type of airborne partical?  If it's airborn particals I'm afraid you'll likely have issues with any fog or haze, however a food grade product would hopefully be a bit easier to tolerate. 

@Nick, interesting on the natural fluid.  Their website advertises "higher quality chemicals than food grade", however reading their MSDS they don't actually specify what the composition of the fluid is.  Not to say this product wouldn't be well-suited for this, just curious to know what it's actually made from? 
« Last Edit: Jun 11, 2012, 11:20 am by kmc307 »
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