Since the new tighter OSHA exposure limits for hexavalent chromium became effective on 11/27/2006, what are folks doing to meet the exposure monitoring requirement? Do you monitor each welder, a "typical" welding process/electrode use, periodic random sampling, or other methods? Or have you just required every welder welding base metal/weld metal containing chromium to wear respiratory protection? If so, what type of respirator is being used? What types of "engineering controls" are effective for electrode/base metal specific chromium contents? Has there been any success "ruling out" the lower chromium alloys (such as E8018-B2, E9018-B3)? I am interested in hearing how fabricators and construction companies are dealing with the new tighter limits.
Wow so long I have been out of touch with welding industry, well not that long but rules sure change. In my day we monitored the surrounding atmosphere by sight, if you couldn't see the guy next to you it was time to go have a smoke. I wish I could help with this one but it is above my head, good luck... :)
i've been welding with it for over a year now and i would like to know more about it myself. according to the welding journal, flux core puts out the most fumes and tig puts out the least. i think, if i understand right, you hire someone to measure the amount of chromium in the fumes while welding and that will determin what you need to do. we are using pulse and tig wich are two processes that put off the least fumes. wich is fine with me, when we were running flux core we spent way too much time cleaning welds.
Marty,
The last time I had our guys monitored we had the welders tape the collection filters up under their shield to get a better understanding of what the welder was actually getting exposed to. I've seen some testing outfits place the collection filter outside and pinned to the welder's clothes. I'm not a big fan of that idea, because the welder might not be breathing the same concentration under his/her shield as would be found outside where they pinned the collection filter. Also make sure they wear the filters for a full 8 hours rather than just a few minutes because then the lab might multiply the results to achieve the 8 hour average and that might not be to your advantage or give a real world sample of the fume exposure to the welder.
Just a few thoughts.
Marty,
We did sampling and have gone to respirators for welders. I think "Engineering Controls" are in the works but I am not sure. It has not been a "hot topic" for a few months I think.
Gerald
I f flux core is so bad with fumes why isn't "OSHA" cracking down on these companys that use it I just left a place that wanted me to weld flux core all day long in a confined space no exhaust vent asked for a mask they told me to buy one. the job was paying $9.00 an hour I told them off and walked out. I haven't walked out of many jobs either but there safty codes are poor. OSHA came there fined them gave them a time period to fix the problem they never did and OSHA never returned.
We had some OSHA people come to our shop last year and they had the guys in the shop wear some monitors for a couple of days. When they were done they said everything was fine and left. We usually keep the overhead doors open unless it's under 30 degrees outside.
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