Don't breathe the smoke.

What a great and useful post! Stupid people everywhere will owe you their lives. This thread needs some more important information.

Don't drop anvils on your foot. Dont put acetylene bombs in the toilet. Don't weld naked.

SM, I think that, jokes aside, the original post was very useful. Maybe it will make some people provide some better ventilation of the work areas.

Did you read the info in the link? There are plenty of enclosed spaces where hardsurfacing needs to be applied and til lately not much was required for safety gear. I would have given damn near anything for a supplied air respirator back when I was building up and hardsurfacing crusher rolls. Steve

Can't agree with the last one. It would save a lot of money in tanning beds and vacations in tropical places. Just gather around folks... we'll take off our clothes and fire up the old buzzbox and save the air fare to Timbuktoo........to say nothing of the hotel costs.

Cheers,

Bruce (bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

Yes, but its preaching to the choir. For hobby welders, read the directions, don't breathe the fumes.

The original article has been around for a while, and has surfaced before. Anyone who believes that there are no potentially toxic side effects from arc welding operations is clueless.

Whose responsibility is it to point out to people that they are exposing themselves to carcinogens and toxic quantities of metal fumes? Is it the manufacturer's? The government's? The end-user, who should realize that inhaling anything other than straight up clean atmosphere is bad for you?

This is just like the tobacco litigation crap. There are means available to protect yourself, if you are willing to use them. You may even have to provide your own respirator, but which would you rather do? Pay for a respirator and cartridges, or pay for lung cancer, mesothelioma, or magnesium-lead-cadmium-arsenic poisoning?

I agree that you should not have to pay for your own protection, it should be provided by the employer. However, it is still up to you whether you wear it or not.

Yes, the manufacurer should be responsible for proper labeling and safety gear recomendations.

As a watchdog for irresponsible companies.

The employer should make sure safety warnings are read and understood and safety equipment is available.

The end-user,

Should read and understand safety warnings and use proper safety equipment.

who should realize

For the idiots and the clueless, this stuff will kill you or at least change the quality of your retirement years. Safety can never be stressed too much. We've heard it all before. We've all been to thousands of safety meetings, going over the same ole hooray. And yet people end up with the nickname "Stumpy" and get sent home for going blind all the time.

What, we've invented everything, so lets close the invention office? We've heard all the safety stuff, so lets just shut up about it?

I think not.

Reading the replies to this post, I now remember why at least one of them is in my electronic round file.

Use that PPE, people, particularly ear protection while welding.

Steve

I knew there was a reason you were in my round file.

snip

We have both too often seen the results on the 'bad old jobs' where safety was thought to be too expensive and too slow. We both know that proper safety takes training, information and commitment.

We all fall into the trap of thinking that we do not need hearing protection for a short little job, but all those short jobs add up and grinders (and ArcAir) in particular are much louder than we think Ear plugs have the added function of helping to keep sparks out of your ears. I often use a set or earplugs on a light plastic C frame that are easy to put on and off. I also have a very thin set of ear muffs which will fit under my standard welding mask or even a hardhat-mask combo as required on many big, heavy (and usually loud) jobs.

Safety glasses should be worn at ALL times.

Pilots say, 'Be thankful for luck, but don't count on it.'

Good luck and Worksafe.

Hearing/Ear protection for welding is primarily for keeping the hot stuff out of the ear canal. Hard to believe how much can come around to the inside of the mask when welding under a vehicle.

Met a welder one time who had a large portion of his skull and face removed from a dingleberry going into his ear. Was doing a job on his motorhome. I was using the C frame plugs. He said, "wish I had been wearing some of those" and told me the story.

Yeah, and hearing loss, too. I wear hearing aids, and without them, I'm really really hard of hearing. Enough to limit my lifestyle. Conversation, TV, movies, everything. Still have a bad time at movies. Have to have the closed captions on TV, or I don't get it all.

But at least I haven't gotten a hot dingleberry in there.

Got several little round scars on my arms where a BB went, and I'd tough it out rather than blow an X ray joint. My legs are all polky dotty, too. I can tell a real welder by looking at their arms.

Little white circles all over.

Steve

And how quick they are, how much they can bounce, and how they always head for the ears.

Steve

Steve, what if you turn the sound on TV up a lot, so that it is very loud, you would still have troubles hearing what actors say?

Yes, I have trouble even in movies, and you know how loud that is. Some voices that fall within a certain range are unintelligible to me, particularly those females who have a horrible nasal twang. I need to go to an audiologist now that I live here and be plugged into their computer and see if my hearing has changed, and my aids need tweaking. Plus, just a new test to see if I've gone downhill. Had some major medical things in the last two years, and that can do it, too. I take about 400 doses of meds a month, and that has to amount to something.

Steve

Sorry, Bill, but you've obviously never worked in a shipyard or other "high productivity" welding zone. Imagine 4 needleguns pounding away at paint on the opposite side of the tank that you are cladding in.

Hearing protection is essential for the noise. Only time you need it for sparks is if you're outta control.

It reminds me that I should wear ear muffs more often. I hope that they can find some good hearing ids that would alleviate this problem for you.

Lizzie, I know from years of reading you here that you are a highly experienced weldor. Every man has their own preferences and peculiarities, even superstitions when it comes to working. Ear canal protection against dingleberries is one of mine. The two things, noise, and hot sparks are entirely different safety issues. And I do know how much hassle ear plugs can be, particularly when you're in an area that you NEED to hear stuff. But then there's all that 99% of needleguns (BTDT) and the 1% of what you really need to hear. My worst problems with earplugs was about once every year or two when I had a large pore in there that would become plugged, and then grow to a huge painful zit, then pop and drain, total time ........ one month.

From what I've read of you, I'd have no problems working with you, and maybe we met somewhere in another life.

Steve

Hello TL, I can say without a doubt, I've never worked, welded or even walked thru a shipyard. I'm an old army track mechanic who likes to putz around in the garage rebuilding a '66 landcruiser. As far as being out of control, I'd have to agree. I don't weld well from the underside of a vehicle. :D