How many precautions are required?

since there are many ways to weld, are there ways
to weld that are less hazardous than others?

Specifically
rebar, 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch 5/8ths inch
grades 60 , #3, #4, #5

4 to 6 hours a day , 3 days a week
both inside and out doors

Yes. In addtion to inhaling fumes, burns are pretty common. It is a labor intensive job and hard on the body.

I will defer the other questions to actual welders.

I am an anesthetist ( I put folks to sleep for surgery). I frequently find that folks who have spent much time as a welder have abnormal lungs....they will require more oxygen and ventilatory assistance than someone who hasn't welded a bunch.
Now the disclaimers: I don't see this in the occasional welder or someone who welded for a couple years as a young man and now 10 years later , comes for surgery. Just the career welders. Now days this may not be the issue it used to be . Technology and safety may have improved. This is just one old "gas-passer's" opinion.
If you're going to make this a career , be very careful to follow the rules... Lots of ventilation is good !

Yes welding can affect:
Lungs- fumes from the welding rod flux burning paint and metals
Eyes-UV from the high voltage causes UV light and will damage eyes/vision
Skin-burns and UV light


My dad did stick welding in his well drilling business, it can be bad even outside

I have stick welded and mig(wire fed in a machine) a little.

It’s an art. Better to pay someone for their time and skill.

Welding things with hazardous coatings, cadmium, paint and a few other alloys can be very bad for you.
Otherwise try to stay away from the smoke and have some good ventilation and use common sense and you'll probably be OK.

Very enlightening - had no idea!

Welding anything galvanized without first grinding off the zinc is especially bad for you.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Welding things with hazardous coatings, cadmium, paint and a few other alloys can be very bad for you.
Otherwise try to stay away from the smoke and have some good ventilation and use common sense and you'll probably be OK.

The guy who shot up the MacDonalds in San Ysidro California and killed 21 in 1984 was a welder who had very high levels of cadmium in his brain at autopsy. It has been theorized that it contributed to his mental illness. You gotta know what you are messing with.

As an aside, he tried to connect with emergency mental health counselors the day before but they did not return his call.

There are special respirators available now to lessen exposure to the fumes: https://www.millerwelds.com/sa...r-respirators-m30106

The answer is it depends. With reasonable precautions its not particularly bad. But the reasonable precautions are annoying while welding, expensive or both. Primarily you need some form of respitory protection from fumes. Nobody regularly welds without the basic physical and eye protection. If you use a good PAPR system then the risks are pretty low. Even just a decent P100 respirator under your helmet will do a pretty good job in normal circumstances outdoors in good air. But I see guys plenty of the time who grab a welding helmet, gloves and jacket and then weld. Not a chance I would.

The post above is a perfect example. That's a good system to get supplied air to a helmet. About as good as it gets in protection and comfort. But in the end its 10K to do it for max two people. Now if you have a big welding shop you do the air supply in a different way and the cost/person drops way down. In this day the capability to manage this risk is available.

One of my sons is a welder. I started a welding business in high school. I had a lot of burns to show for it, too. There's no question that shop ventilation is a big plus, and there are some who have helmet ventilation, though I'd say it's rare. Very few wear respirators.

So far as ventilation, you can do a lot simply by use of air movement: a van eliminates the issue at the point where you're welding.

As a comparison, as a kid, I worked with a lot of toxic chemicals, with much more dangerous vapor and contact risk. I was an aerial applicator (crop duster). We didn't wear respirators. We didn't splash the chemical, and stayed upwind. Problem solved.

A little common sense goes a long way.

I’ve been a welder for 8 years now. It is very labor intensive and usually hotter than shit. The pay sucks unless you are a pipe welder or are just plain lucky. You’ll most likely make 15-18 bucks an hour at a factory.

And I’ve found that my eye sight has been getting worse, and as far as respirators go that’s all fine and dandy but as soon as you take it off the shit is still in the air. Even with fume extractors which half of the guys won’t use anyway it’s still there.

And yeah different metals/coatings will all slowly poison you. If you’re looking for a new career I’d do just about anything else. I’m trying to figure that out myself but I really just don’t recommend it. Now if you want to just screw around in your garage on the weekends then you have nothing to worry about

I have a buddy who was a welder in his younger years.

His body is beat to crap. He did pipeline welding and a lot of other things where he had to contort his body into all kinds of stretched, scrunched, twisted, just about upside down, etc, to reach into position to weld.

Shielding gases can be an asphyxiant if indoors and the area not well ventilated.

For stick welding, if you can have a fan running to push the smoke away, this helps dramatically. TIG welding has very little, if any fumes.
For welding inside, you definitely need some sort of forced ventilation.

Welders and librarians typically end up wearing "coke bottle" thick eyeglasses. I suspect it is the straining at tiny spots for hours on end that is causing most of the damage.

I have done about 2,000 hours of welding with zero eye problems.

geez!
thanks for all the replys

Life is detrimental to your health, in varying degrees.

Yes, lots of toxic fumes and few people wear respirators.

i was a union ironworker for 37 years Welding cutting, grinding and burning was part of the job I seldom used a mask because i was nearly always out side and would try to get upwind of the smoke ,, Yea masks were available but i didnt use em cause then i couldnt see Anyway im 6 years retired and lungs are pretty
bad ,, i loved welding because it was something i was good at but the thought of breathing any more of that smoke makes me ill The money was good and i would probably do it all over again Maybe try and use the mask more though