I just went through an orientation to hire on at the Shell Refinery in Anacortes, WA. They had a whole section on welding hexavalent chrome, talked about having to wear respirators and wear Tyvek suit, having to do a decontamination when you got done... sounds like stainless and such is going to be the next asbestos.
Have any of you had to start doing all this yet?
The last job I was on we welded some 9 Chrome and they never said a word about it.
It's a new OSHA requirement that is being phased in, I guess.
It's a whole new world.
Stainless? I worked at a place for about 11 months till I just quit a couple weeks ago and whenever I would grind I would always wear a mask now know one else ever did.. never thought it would be like the next asbestos. When I worked there I really tried staying away from anyone grinding or if there was some around me I would turn my fan on and make sure I had fresh air blowing that trash away from me. I can remember guys who were grinding with no mask and there face would be just coverd in stainless and I was like look you can have one of my mask they werel ike no I'm find it's not bothering me. they just didn't have a clue how much down the road it will affect you. My friends a car painter and he kinda got me turned onto useing the mask with the two canisters on and man some people yeah don't like them but I'm all for it if it keep me healthy
Chris
Hex chrome will have us all in respirators very soon if your stick welding. TIG and automatic TIG are still immune most places for now. I'd voluntarily wear a mask if on 9 chrome. According to the classes hexavalent chrome is a leading cause of Parkinsons disease among other medical conditions among welders.
there is a reason that mother nature has spent all that time spreading out the toxic elements (Mg Mn Co Cr Ni Ur Pb etc.) into all that rock, and we keep refining it down to its purest forms for progress and development. i think a lot of revelations about the toxicity of chemicals and elements are coming down the pipeline. especially in our industry.
wearing hearing protection is mandatory but respirators are not?
the reason that we are going to legislated to better and better protection is because science is catching up to our working processes and it can prove why all those welders are dying and getting sick, ergo lawyers are going to use that science and hold industry accountable.
ive said it before and didnt get much of a response but msds and whmis only take into account the products when they are at room temperature or there abouts never mind super heating them to a few thousand or in the case of plasma tens of thousands of degrees and then exposing them to ultraviolet light and such. i think that our trade is going to start to get the respect that it deserves with regard to the fact that we trade our health and our lives to build this world and our pay is going to have to increase and our output is going to have to decrease as we take more and more precautions to stay healthy, after all we theoretically have the right to the pursuit of life liberty and happiness.
darren
Amen to that Darren. We had to start wearing masks to weld and grind stainless and Chrome about 2 years ago at the Conoco Phillips refinery in Wood River Illinois. Everyone was like why in the h#$$ do we have to use masks to weld on stainless. Then we got the big Hex Chrome speal. The welders in the plant I'm working in now just got there first Hex Chrome speal a few months ago. I guess this plant didn't get the first memo.;-) I guess there will allways be something that's gona be harmful to our health anymore. God only knows what we've been exposed to in our careers that's going to effect us later on downt he road. When we do get sick later on in our lives (if we do, but god willing we don't) we will never know what it was that caused it probably.
Regarding the comment about hazardous chemicals at room temp... I was a waterproofer many years ago, working out of Cleveland. We had a job in Toledo (2hrs. away) The truck broke down on the way and our materials (mastic and caulk) froze. The get this stuff back to a workable consistency, my foreman hit the bucket with a torch. He ended up getting that stuff to a boil, gobs of smoke spewing out, and guess who had his head over the bucket breathing that stuff..This guy! I looked at the MSDS and it said overheating this stuff will cause "hazardous polymerization", and "permanent reduced lung function" , "keep away from foodstuffs" I quit soon after. Another shop I worked at would use the torch as their primary paint removal method. Respirators are cool.
I've read all that stuff too and freely admit I'm probably just an old fool, but I welded stainless for years and yeard and (fingers crosses!) no ill effects, at least none that I know of... I know tons and tons of my co-workers are in the same boat. I'm not saying there's nothing to all of the studies, but I sometimes wonder if lawyers and scientists aren't (just maybe?) blowing things a bit out of proportion? Please, no landslide of critique, just speaking my piece.
I take fume protection a lot more seriously now. One of my Welding Engineering professors died a quick and painful death from lung cancer in his middle age. He never smoked a cigarette in his entire life. He did weld a lot of test materials to qualify welding procedures for his consulting work. He also hung out in the welding engineering lab coaching students on their hands on skills. As I recall, there was not the best ventillation. We had updraft exhaust, but there was no use of local fume extraction near the weld. In other words, the fumes did go out of the lab - after they passed your breathing path.
I think jon makes a good point. And with him I'm not saying the fume issue is not important, but we ran test after test after test in perhaps 7 or 8 of the shops that I've worked in (power shops, alloys shops, etc) with sensors clipped to the welders shirts and up under the hoods and not once in all the years and all the tests we ran did we ever violate the OSHA maximums for hazardous elements. And we even used as a standard future maximums since our safety guy was right on top of this issue. And this even with some of the welders cheating a bit and taking the clipped sensor off and holding it right in the fume stream coming off the weld!!
The point is, even though these things have proven clinically dangerous, and there certainly is some serious anecdotal evidence to consider, a little sobriety in these issues can go a long way.
Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Welding Stainless or Anything with Chrome In it
