Deadly threat to welders

By Bill O’Byrne - 1 April 2020, Build 177

Welders are at high risk of developing cancer from exposure to fumes. While safety equipment such as respiratory protection is available and can save lives, some employers are put off the best solutions due to cost.

WELDERS IN New Zealand face a severe risk from respiratory tract cancers. A recent international study says they have a 43% increased risk of lung cancer compared to people not exposed to welding fumes.

Respiratory protective equipment a must

Site Safe’s Mark Walklin says that, even if welders avoid cancer, many may suffer scarring to the trachea and lungs if they don’t use some form of respiratory protective equipment (RPE). Others will suffer from exposure to the harmful substances used in or generated by welding.

Feeling the effects of welding without RPE

Mark should know the downside of not using RPE. His doctor has told him he has the lung capacity of an 8-year-old child due to the fumes from a career in welding that began long before there was a Health and Safety Act.

He started out as a fitter/welder when he was 16, working on agricultural machinery, first in Marton and then in general engineering and construction around New Zealand and Australia. While working as a specialist in welding coated metals, he remembers waking up in the middle of the night wheezing and coughing up blood.

The effects on his health got so bad he had to give it up, switching to horticulture and then factory work. These days, he’s a product developer at Site Safe.

He believes New Zealand hasn’t done well when it comes to looking after welders.

It’s not just New Zealand, Mark says. When he was welding coated steel in Australia, his only respiratory protection was a paper mask. It doesn’t stop much.

‘I used to say to apprentices when they’re training, if you’re welding a chair leg, some of that steel gets vaporised in the arc, becomes part of the fume rising into your helmet. It’s still steel, but now it’s in a form you can inhale. Whatever you’re working on, some of it always gets inside the guy doing the welding.’

Studies show fumes can cause cancer

A recent White Paper by AWS (Australian Welding Supplies) contained an analysis of 35 studies on exposure to welding fumes and the risk of lung cancer from 1954 to 2017.

The conclusions of the study are sobering:

Exposure to welding fumes increases the risk of lung cancer.
Welders, on average, have a 43% increased risk of lung cancer compared to nonsmokers and people not exposed to fumes.
The increased risk of cancer doesn’t depend on the type of steel welded or the process used.
The risk increases with the years working as a welder.

Classified as ‘carcinogenic to humans’

Mark says it’s not just lungs that can be affected – the constituent parts of different metals, shielding gases and flux coatings affect different organs.

Stainless steel welders have a higher incidence of nasal and laryngeal cancers. MIG welding generates ozone, which is a respiratory tract irritant. Carbon dioxide is a common shielding gas that converts to carbon monoxide in the welding process, and prolonged exposure can cause damage to blood vessels and heart muscle. Manganese damages the brain, cadmium damages the kidneys and beryllium damages the heart and liver.

In 2017, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reclassified welding fumes from ‘possibly carcinogenic’ to ‘carcinogenic to humans’.

Extract fumes at source

As to how to deal with it, Mark says extraction at source above where the welding is taking place is a good starting point. But it’s not just a matter of pushing it outside.

‘You can’t just vent out the window. The requirement is to capture all the harmful particulates, not just blow them over the neighbour,’ he says.

A government health bulletin in the UK in 2019 found there was no safe level of exposure to welding fumes and declared general ventilation was not acceptable.

PAPR offers best protection but expensive

Two of the best solutions offered in the White Paper are the use of helmets fitted with a powered air purifying respirator (PAPR) or a supplied air respirator.

Powered air respirators bring in air via a mini portable pump to the full-face welding mask to create a positive pressure to keep fumes out.

Supplied air systems use air from a line pumped to the welder’s helmet to also keep the pressure up and the fumes out.

Mark says that, while the PAPR type is more versatile, the downside with these is the cost, which can be $2,000 or more. Often employers aren’t keen to pay for these, and welders often can’t afford them.

So things carry on and welders suffer, he says.

‘There is incontrovertible evidence that welding without proper respiratory protection is harmful, and the evidence has been around for decades.’

‘When I first met my wife, I naturally also met her family. One of her uncles was a pleasant guy in his 60s. He had to drag a little oxygen cylinder behind him with tubes going up his nose. I used to watch him trying to walk from the driveway to the house. He would take a couple of steps and stand gasping for a while then step some more.

‘He was a welder.’