BACKGROUND Occupational exposure is estimated to contribute 15% to the burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Welding fumes are suspected to accelerate the decline of lung function and development of COPD. AIMS To examine the relationship between welding fume exposure and COPD in Korean shipyard welders. METHODS The study involved a group of male welders working at two ship...

This paper emphasizes the need for occupational hygiene professionals to require evidence of the quality of welding fume data from analytical laboratories. The measurement of metals in welding fume using atomic spectrometric techniques is a complex analysis often requiring specialist digestion procedures. The results from a trial programme testing the proficiency of laboratories in the Workplac...

BACKGROUND Debate exists as to whether welding fume is carcinogenic, but epidemiological evidence suggests that welders are an at risk population for the development of lung cancer. Recently, we found that exposure to welding fume caused an acutely greater and prolonged lung inflammatory response in lung tumor susceptible A/J versus resistant C57BL/6J (B6) mice and a trend for increased tumor i...

Tungsten inert gas welding (TIG) represents one of the most widely used metal joining processes in industry. Its propensity to generate a greater portion of welding fume particles at the nanoscale poses a potential occupational health hazard for workers. However, current literature lacks comprehensive characterization of TIG welding fume particles. Even less is known about welding fumes generat...

Workers can be exposed to fume, arising from welding activities, which contain toxic metals and metalloids. Occupational hygienists need to assess and ultimately minimize such exposure risks. The monitoring of the concentration of particles in workplace air is one assessment approach whereby fume, from representative welding activities, is sampled onto a filter and returned to a laboratory for ...

In order to improve arc welding work in a small enclosed workspace, numerical simulations were conducted to find the most appropriate welding and ventilation conditions, such as welding currents, hood position and flow rates with no blowhole formation. In the simulations, distributions of airflow vectors and fume concentrations were calculated for two hood opening positions: one faced a welder'...

Urinary fluoride concentrations have been measured in electric arc welders using basic electrodes. The fluoride concentration and the total welding fume concentration in air showed a linear relation with postshift urinary fluoride concentration. The measured concentrations were below internationally recommended postshift urinary fluoride concentrations believed to cause fluorosis. Biological mo...

Exposure to welding fumes is already known to produce respiratory effects, such as pulmonary function, pneumoconiosis, and lung cancer, along with certain non-respiratory results, such as manganism [1]. However, despite a large number of publications on the pathophysiological process of welding fume exposure-induced diseases to understand the disease process in vivo and in vitro, relatively few...

Welding fumes are common ambient air pollutants in manufacturing facilities, and have been shown to have deleterious effects on human health. An experimental effort is conducted to study the formation and composition of respirable fumes from a SMAW process. The responses examined are the fume particle size distribution (mean diameter) and formation rate (particle number and mass concentration)....

A group of stainless steel arc welding processes was compared for emission rates of fume and hexavalent chromium, and costs per meter length of weld. The objective was to identify those with minimal emissions and also compare relative labor and consumables costs. The selection included flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), shielded-metal arc welding (SMAW), and multiple gas metal arc welding (GMAW) pr...