Inhalation of Welding Fumes Affecting Welders in Construction Industry

This study focuses on the impact of welding fume inhalation on welders in the construction industry. It explores the risks, diseases, and preventive measures associated with exposure to welding fumes. The study also investigates the levels of metal exposure and stress among welders. The research is conducted in a vehicle manufacturing unit, analyzing the concentration of metals in the welders' system and their tendency towards stress.

Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the construction industry
Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the
construction industry
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Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the construction industry
Table of contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................2
Research hypothesis.........................................................................................................3
Methodology......................................................................................................................3
Rationale............................................................................................................................6
References.........................................................................................................................7
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Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the construction industry
Introduction
Fumes that produce during the welding process contain numerous metals. Exposure to
these fumes can even result in many dangerous diseases such as cancer etc. That is
why welders involved in the welding process are at very high risk. A vehicle
manufacturing unit and their welders will be taken to make the research study on
inhalation of welding fumes and their effects on them. This will be done to find the
traces of elements in their system and check the tendency of stress level.
There will be around 13 metals founded that got generated during a welding process.
These will be cobalt (Co), beryllium(Be), manganese(Mn), nickel (Ni), mercury (Hg),
cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), antimony (Sb), chromium (Cr),
vanadium (V), iron (Fe) and lead(Pb)(Graczyk et al. 2015). Manganese is an essential
element that is used for coating the materials that are used as welding products. These
products are wires and bars. Welders will have the greatest risk with this element, i.e.,
manganese. The study will research that this element can even result in Parkinson's
disease among the welders. However, most of the studies have not clarified the level of
manganese in the air during the process of welding(Guha et al. 2017). When they were
asked about the low-level exposure or long-term exposure effect of manganese, there
was no answer. It will also be founded that exposure to iron and manganese is a cause
of the neurodegenerative disorder.
Some research study has ensured that manganese toxicity is also related to many other
elements such as zinc, aluminum, iron, and copper. Also, there are several factors that
affect the exposure to welding fumes of the workers who are involved in welding
activities. Those factors include the composition of those rods which are used in the
welding process. Type of welding activities also acts as a factor that affects the workers.
There are many things such as base metal, coatings, location, mechanical or local
controls, work practices such as removing the coatings, cleaning the surfaces, etc. that
has a direct effect on workers consumption level(Fedan, 2017).
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Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the construction industry
Welding fumes are a mixture of some fluorides, metallic oxides and silicates. When any
metal gets heated above the boiling point and resulted in condensed vapors it resulted
in the formation of fumes (Antonini et al. 2017). These fumes contain the particles of
welding and electrodes. These fumes also contain oxides of those metals which were
welded. Some of these metals in the fumes can have dangerous effects. Those
ingredients can be oils, fluids or rust. Cadmium plating, zinc from steel, paints and
solvents' vapors, paint from lead oxide and some coatings of plastic (Audureau et al.
2018).To reduce these fumes coatings from the welded areas can be removed. It will
also enhance the quality of the welding material. Strips can be used to remove these
coatings and these must be removed before welding. The coating must not be ground
as the dust can be harmful (Baumann et al. 2018). These gases can even cause fire or
explosion, lack of oxygen. These fumes can be a result of welding activities and can
contain various metals. Exposure to such fumes can result in man harmful diseases.
One of them is lung cancer.
Even some new hazards can be introduced due to the latest welding technologies in the
workplace (Bleidorn et al. 2019). This will also result in changed properties of the fumes.
There were some recommendations also that can be provided to lessen the hazards
due to exposure to these fumes. Welders should keep their heads out of the fumes and
must use a mask while breathing. Exhausted fans should be there to keep fumes out of
the workplace and at welders’ zone and their working area (Bonvallot et al. 2018).
Proper ventilation will keep the air clean for which air samples should be tested to know
the measures that must be taken for it. Those welding’s which are related to electrodes
such as lead, cadmium, stainless steel, etc. produce harmful fumes and thus requires
special kind of ventilation(Krabbe et al. 2018). For this purpose, local or mechanical
ventilation must be used.
Those harmful gases which are generated are due to welding and cutting activities. The
concentration of these gases depends on the process of the welding and the
mechanism that the welders follow (Dewald et al. 2015). These gases include carbon
monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide. CO can even result
in a decrease in the capacity of blood to carry oxygen. It also results in headache and
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Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the construction industry
weakness sometimes. Nitric gases and nitrogen oxide combined to form nitrous gases.
These gases cause the problem to eye, skin and even mucous membrane. These are
highly poisonous gases which irritate skin. These gases react mostly on upper parts
such as nose etc. there are some symptoms which can help in identifying the diseases
caused due to nitrogen gases (Falcone et al. 2017). These symptoms are breathing
problem, irritation, etc. Welding processes can be divided into two main groups that are
pressure welding and fusion welding. Pressure Welding is related to heat and pressure
while fusion welding is related to electric, gas, and thermite. All these kind of welding
activities results in dangerous fumes and by-products which are a cause of several
harmful diseases. These fumes contain many harmful gases such as carbon monoxide,
carbon dioxide, argon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and etcetera(Falcone et al. 2018). These
fumes can cause health issues for welders as they are in direct contact with these
gases during their welding activities. This report has focused on providing a method to
find out the result of inhaled gases and some qualitative, quantitative and mixed
approaches to analyse the conditions of the welders(Krajnak et al. 2017).
Research hypothesis
The aim of this study is to analyse the welders in the construction industry who got
affected due to inhalation of welding fumes. This report has focused on investigating the
absorption of manganese by the welders while they perform the welding process. This
has also investigated whether this has changed the tendency of required elements such
as iron, zinc, manganese, etc. in the biological fluids. The main aim of this report is to
find out the stress level among the workers due to oxidative exposure of biomarkers.
This report has also focused on identifying whether welding fumes exposure resulted in
lead concentration in blood or not.
This is because lead is a metal that is mostly used in every industry and is also
available in welding fumes.
To make a research, a vehicle manufacturing industry has been chosen, and welders of
this industry are taken to identify manganese levels, serum level, lead concentration in
them. This report has been made to find out the disturbance among welders related to
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Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the construction industry
the tendency of traced exposure of elements in their system circulation and stress level.
They have been researched for finding the metals which get generated during any
welding process and the level of risk at which these welders work. This report has
determined to find the number of metals in welding fumes and diseases caused due to
occupational exposure to them. This report has determined the level of risk due to toxic
metal exposure with the help of samples collected from blood, urine, hairs, etc.
Methodology
Quantitative Approach
The data will be collected by surveying a vehicle manufacturing unit. The study will be
done by surveying the unit and its welders on a routine basis and analysing its welding
practices held daily. This unit must be located individually. It will not be surrounded by
any other metal unit. There will be around 500 workers working in the unit from whom
thirty-seven welders will be selected who would be highly exposed to welding fumes.
(Markert et al. 2016) This group consists of 15 females and 22 males. The average age
must be calculated as 38 years, and standard deviated must be founded as+/-1.5. The
working hours decided for every worker ranging from 7 to 8 hours, and they would be
working there from 2 to 36 years.
There must also be a control unit that consisted of around 50 workers. These workers
will be employed from a nearby food factory. (Mei et al. 2018) They will have never
been exposed to manganese or any other toxic element. This group consisted of 19
females and 31 males. Their mean age must be calculated as 34 years. They must
have around 15 years of average professional years. The working conditions must have
remained the same for all the years without any change in any condition. The age of
welders and control groups will be found compatible, and the gender ratio will also be
comparable. There would be almost no difference between the smoking and
consumption of alcohol habits between the two groups.
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Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the construction industry
Rationale
The data that will be collected based on the reports will be analyzed and may found that
manganese is the most emitted gas in the fume during the welding process. It will be
the highest concentration that will found in the samples. Air sample will be taken with
the help of pipe that was 35 mm in diameter(Krawic and Zhitkovich,2018). Also, the
negative effect of the exposure to welding fumes will be recorded. On the basis of the
results, it will be identified that exposure to welding fumes will result in increased
concentration of iron and zinc. This will happen due to the action of manganese on the
iron. As it was previously explained that samples contain many elements such as iron,
zinc, copper, lea, etc. From these elements concentration of iron and zinc will be found
due to direct exposure to welding fumes. The main thing to point out here is that more
concentration of iron in the system can also result in neuron injury. It is also possible
that these differences in concentration can be due to the difference in age of groups and
different biological parameters.
Hence it can be said that the manganese level found in the welding fumes will be more
than expected. The concentration of manganese and iron that will be founded in high
quantity due to direct exposure to welding fumes that was inhaled during welding
processes while this will result in a decrease in zinc concentration. All these will also
result in identifying stress level among the welders. Also, the exposure to cadmium
element in welding fumes will be found as a cause of the neurological disorder.
Empirical Study
Reports and interviews records will beanalysed to collect the data and information.
From the data collected, only the average will be taken. (Suri et al. 2016) If not then it
will be mentioned. To find the relation between the trace of the elements and the level of
stress among also the age of the welders, linear regression along with logarithm will be
performed. Also, correlation analysis will be done to find the relationship between the
concentrations of airborne metals and level of urine metals. This data will be recorded in
Microsoft office excel 2010. Many of the chemicals will be used to perform the test and
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Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the construction industry
to get results. These chemicals will be hydrochloric acid, Pb acetate, perchloric acid,
nitric acid, Na acetate, etc.
No other toxin or radiation therapy will be founded in both groups during the study.
(Rana et al. 2019) If any of the workers would be founded restricted with any diet or
suffering from a cardiovascular disorder or any respiratory disease must be excluded
from the group. Also, a questionnaire must be prepared to collect the information about
their job history, salary, educational qualification, diet, habits such as smoking or
consumption of alcohol, any kind of drug, etc. All the workers would also be interviewed
with the help of an expert interviewer. It must be focused that they work in morning
shifts only. The welder's group include fitter, full pass, filling cap, grinder, foreman, co
fitter, filling and back weld. The welders and control groups will be divided into three
groups based on the task performed by them such as welders, back welders, and
assistants.
Blood samples along with urine samples will be collected from each worker to make the
study. They will be asked to collect a 24-hour sample of urine in a plastic container. A
sample of 250 ml and concentrated Ammonia will be mixed and kept at 4o C(Riccelli et
al. 2018). They will be asked not to eat anything overnight and then a sample of 10ml
blood would be taken from their cubical vein. Around 1ml sample of blood was kept in a
small container that will already be filled with blood thinner known as heparin. Rest of
the blood sample would be kept for separating serum. Blood and serum samples would
be cooled at -20o C and then analysed. All the containers that will be used for collecting
and storing the samples would be washed properly with acids and distilled, and pure
water must be used in the whole process.
A station air sampler must be used to monitor the air sample from which all the welders
would be surrounded. A pump containing a filter will be used to collect the air sample.
The model no. will be BFC-35 and the diameter of the pipe will be around 35mm. Air
flow will be checked properly before taking the air sample and rechecked after it. Every
second hour, the air samples would be collected. In a day it will be taken for three times
and the whole procedure will be completed two times in the whole month. Also, the
mean values would be calculated in this study report. The same procedure will be
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Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the construction industry
followed for control units but at a different place. After analysing the routine welding
practice, most exposed level of element that will be found is manganese.
Critical Review
When the samples will be analysed the high concentration of many elements may be
found. These can be iron, copper, lead, manganese, zinc, etc. It can be founded that
welders will have a higher level of manganese in their samples accompanied by high-
stress level than in control groups. Welders with younger age and less work experience
in the industry will be more exposed to welding fumes than those who are elder and
have more experienced years.
Similarly, iron and zinc concentrations can be found more in younger ones (Tian et al.
2016). The physiological factors, physical activities, and inexperience can also lead to
maximum exposure. Physiological activities include activities such as cardiac function
and breathing rate. Physical activities involved working hours and inexperience was
related to unsafe practices of welding(Stebounova et al. 2018). There are many other
gases found that are used during welding and cutting processes can be divided into
some groups. Those are shielding gases, fuel gases, etc. shielding gases are carbon
dioxide, helium, argon, etc. Fuel gases are butane, acetylene, and propane. Oxygen is
also found in a small amount mixed with shielding gases. While there are some gases
that must be produced during welding and cutting activities(Vishnyakov, 2016). These
are carbon dioxide that will be produced from the decomposition of fluxes and carbon
mono oxide produce due to the decomposition of carbon dioxide. Other gases are
hydrogen chloride, nitrogen oxide, ozone, etc. Hydrogen cyanide, isocyanate vapours,
formaldehyde, hydrogen chloride, etc. are produced due to a breakdown of coatings of
the metals.
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Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the construction industry
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Inhalation of welding fumes affecting welders in the construction industry
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