Is glassblowing dangerous?
Yes. Getting cut or burned is a fairly common occurrence. Less common but still possible are retinal damage from looking into the furnace and toxic exposure problems from the glass color, the silica in the glass, and the gas that runs the furnaces and the torches. Heat exhaustion is a problem, too. At the bench in the shop where I normally work, its 95 degrees Fahrenheit. I do not know how hot it is in front of the furnace or the glory hole because my thermometer went up as high as it goes when I tried to measure the heat in front of the glory hole. My thermometer tops out at 130 degrees Fahrenheit, so it must be hotter than that.
