Stay up wind.
Don't breathe the smoke.
Keep your head out of the smoke.
Use good ventilation when working indoors.
Use respirators when needed.
Good luck.
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.
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)
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
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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
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.
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
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