On 22 July 2024 at 06:40 Hopper Said:

Who knew that welding fumes have been listed …

I knew that welding fumes were not good for you but not that they were this bad. Has this issue been raised in the UK?

And speaking of silica, watch out for those kitchen counter tops if doing any renovation work….

Amazing if news that welding fumes are dangerous had only just reached Australia, but I think the risks are as well-understood there as anyone else.  Or at least by anyone who has researched the subject.   Lots of welding in the Cutting Edge Australia videos, and Kurtis takes suitable precautions, including wearing a hose ventilated helmet.

The problem of course, is that Australia has noticed many paid welders haven’t been trained, and a fair proportion of them weld for hours, day after day, in confined spaces, all factors that massively increase the risk.      In contrast, the short well-spaced exposures to welding fumes experienced by amateurs are unlikely to cause trouble, assuming no-one is foolish enough to weld a Galvanised bucket.   Or Cadmium plated steel.   A quote from Hopper’s first link:  “Professor Slevin said it was important to note that just because someone welded, it did not mean they were going to become sick.”

What should a government do about health damage caused by Slack Alice employers and employees?   Should they accept that tax-payers will pick up the bill when people are made ill, or should they act to mitigate the problem with the tools available to them: anything from circulating a few safety pamphlets, to making processes and materials illegal, or installing a stiff regulatory regime with certificates, inspectors, big-fines, and court cases.   Or warn citizens that they will have to pay their own medical bills, even if their employer profited by cost-cutting health and safety.

Nothing particular special about Australia noticing welding might be a problem.  All countries have episodes in which they suddenly realise some example of large-scale bad practice needs attention.   Like Brits finding their tasty beefy ready-meals contained horse-meat contaminated by equine steroids and antibiotics!

Dave

Hi Sonic, in stick welding, not all the flux evaporates, as it removes oxides and other impurities and then forms the slag on top of the weld, which prevents the red hot weld oxidizing as it cools, but the process does produce a lot of smoke and fumes, and an extraction array should be used fairly close but not right up to the weld pool, to draw the smoke and fumes away from you. Welding was a largest part of my day jobs that I had over my life times work, and at times that would be one or more weeks at a time, but also could go a whole month without doing much welding at all, and in most cases good extraction was used, but I do all of my welding at home outside, but will avoid doing any on a very windy day, as this can cause porosity in the weld, by blowing away the shielding gases around the weld pool.

Regards Nick.

Always, on the rare occasions that it is needed, welding is done outside, so well ventilated.

Especially if anything is galvamised.  The fumes are terrible.

Howard

It’s sensational ‘news’, but characteristically uninformative. I’m happy to believe that some welding fumes are carcinogenic, but which constituents of the fumes are the dangerous ones? The fumes’ components will depend on welding method, materials, fillers, fluxes, etc. Outdoors sounds like a good idea, except I mostly TIG weld and braze, and it’s windy here… Oh, and don’t forget radioactive thoriated tungstens: it’s ‘only’ alpha-emission, but alpha emission is intensely ionizing, and its short range is no protection when you breathe in dust from grinding it. Alternatives exist.

Any fume will cause health issues and those produced by welding and grinding which can be a complete mixture of metals, flux, dirt, oils and gases are obviously not going to be good for you. This is all well documented in the HSE web site and has been a focus point of the HSE for a number of years.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/welding/health-risks-welding.htm