Continuing the discussion from Welding Stainless:
If we’re going down this road, then let’s start discussing the other “hazardous material” used at DMS.
If welding and cutting of stainless steel and/or chromoly steel is being restricted, perhaps it is time to apply this abundance of caution to the activities mentioned above?
[edit: Inserted references]
And the use of paints, wood stains, automotive brake cleaner, freon, acetone, and that Tetrahyrdofuran someone wanted to use to dissolve PLA. At least the building probably doesn’t have lead paint and asbestos, right?
In general, we are working with wet clay and already prepared liquid glazes. The most risky thing we all do is to DRIVE to the site.
There are materials that the city or the EPA have determined to carry a higher rick and we have to follow those requirements.
Did you know that cutting fabric can yield fibers that can damage lungs? or that flour dust can explode?
This training material, in the table “TWA exposures by process”, seems to indicate that the OSHA Permissible Exposure Limit is not exceeded in an 8-hour work shift for the TIG process.
That’s actually a great point, thanks for pointing that out.
When there were flower bags on the give away shelf this was exactly what I was thinking…
Have you guys seen the “haze” in the sky of DFW? Good stuff. I personally am not concerned about picking up carcinogens from TIG, MIG, SMAW. I am more concerned about welding or heating of say something cleaned with chlorinated brake cleaner & creating Phosgene gas. That’s some really nasty stuff. If I’m going to work with a chemical I have the due-diligence to look to see what’s particular dangerous about it & wear the appropriate PPE as well as keeping others informed on the associated hazards. Blocking the area off if the hazards are great enough. Moderation is also the key. More than likely no body is going to be welding for 8 hours a day unless you do it for a living. With the same respect in hazards, wood shop has hazards to health as well. Wood dust/particles can & do cause cancer. We must just take it with a grain of salt & have as a calculated risk as are most of the decisions we make every day.
Just be cautious of the exposure limits of the materials your working with.
Those exposure limits were formulated for an OSHA area equipped for hot work. They might apply, if the metal shop were OSHA compliant, i.e. fully air-exchanged, etc. It’s not.
And tossing “8-hour exposure” isn’t accurate. The full EPL is “5 micrograms per cubic meter of air (5 µg/m3), calculated as an 8-hour time-weighted average” in a fully regulated space (and fully demarcated from unregulated air - i.e. everyone else).
This stuff is the real deal. It’s not a “known to be a carcinogen in California” kind of risk. This stuff will flat tear you up bad if you get too much of it, and that ain’t a whole lot.
Breathing solvents, including gasoline fumes, kills brain cells and poses other health risks. I am concerned about the air quality in the warehouse, particularly as that’s where my Committee is located.
We do have two new Hakko Soldering smoke extractors. They are not perfect and how successful they are depends on using them properly. Soldering 2 feet away they are not particularly effective but 3 inches away not too bad.
Real soldering fume extractors are $575 each.
At some point it would be nice to have.
Nah, lead fumes (and most of these other concerns) only kill the weak cells… Darwinism at its best!
There exists an interesting study (which I’ll have to dig up) where blood levels of Lead were taken from 5 people who soldered a lot under amateur and professional conditions. The conclusion was that unless you were not washing your hands after soldering or actually chewing on it, exposure was negligible.
Like Lampy, I worry more about the flux fumes as I’m soldering, especially when using a microscope. I have a small muffin fan with some “anti-smell” carbon filter foam on the back of it to suck fumes away and hopefully capture most of the particulate matter. I’ve seen setups much like the welding fume extractor which have both a HEPA filter and an activated charcoal post-filter which seem like they’d work really well.
Who you calling weak???