Hot Process Safety and Cadmium

Metal Shop
#1

Whenever I teach HPS, I always wonder about the exact problem with cadmium. I mean, sure – metal poisoning is generally no joke, but you’d think I was from Missouri. I like details. So, here is the short answer from Google:

Acute exposure to cadmium fumes may cause flu-like symptoms including chills, fever, and muscle ache sometimes referred to as “the cadmium blues.” Symptoms may resolve after a week if there is no respiratory damage. More severe exposures can cause tracheobronchitis, pneumonitis, and pulmonary edema.

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#2

Thankfully, cadmium should be fairly rare. I used to think that the yellow coated hardware was cadmium, but in fact, the yellow hardware coating is zinc chromate, so already banned for zinc content. Cadmium coating will be somewhere between a nickel plate appearance and an electroplated zinc, so not easy to tell apart.

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#3

I have a friend who took a contract welding job at Los Alamos Nat Lab. They didn’t tell him the pipe was a Cadmium mixture. He spent a week in the hospital with nasty respiratory problems. Cadmium poisoning is real.

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