Hey, a fellow Canadian!...Back in my atty days (ya, I'm such a vet) as a dye'd in the wool bf'er I've de-bridged and de-wicked a fair amount of atty's, 306's (and io6's, about the same thing) some Cannon's and typical 510's (just give me the coil)...most of what I saw was compressed steel wool with some silica wick feeding the underside of the coil, or silica actually used as the coil core...is that amount of silica worth the angst if you decide to not de-wick?, debatable...especially if you don't de-bridge...the bridge could almost act as a filter for any airborne silica frags coming off...I'd say the biggest silica impact would be off devices that rely primarily on wrapping Kanthal around silica wick and having at it...having said that, use up your atty's then get a rba device...the performance of any of the devices/builds the folks on here have been using will kick the crap out of any pre-made disposable atty...and you don't have to spend a bunch of money either...luck and welcome!
I have a few rebuildables, I was just wondering as I kind of want to get the 306 dripper with my caravela