Will the gas produced by welder during welding affect human body?

Occupational Hazards and Protection of Welding Operation

Strengthen the occupational health management of welding operations, reduce and eliminate occupational hazards, prevent and control occupational diseases, and ensure the health of welding operators.

First, the main hazards in welding operations

The main occupational hazards of welding operations are dust, toxic gas, arc radiation, high-frequency electromagnetic field, high temperature and so on. Among them, welding dust, toxic gas and arc radiation are the most common and extensive hazards.

1, welding dust is high-temperature steam produced by metal and nonmetal substances under overheating conditions. Smoke particles are very small and can be easily inhaled into the lungs. Long-term inhalation will cause pulmonary fibrosis, that is, welder's pneumoconiosis, and it is often accompanied by complications such as manganese poisoning, fluorosis and metal smoke fever.

2. Toxic Gases Under the action of high temperature and strong ultraviolet rays generated by welding arc, a large number of toxic gases will be generated around welding arc, such as ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrogen fluoride.

(1) Ozone: It is a colorless and harmful gas with a special pungent smell. It has a strong stimulating effect on respiratory mucosa and lungs. The ozone produced by manual arc welding is generally lower than the national hygienic standard, but when argon arc welding is carried out under poor ventilation conditions, the concentration is quite high, and long-term inhalation of low-concentration ozone will cause bronchitis, emphysema, pulmonary sclerosis and other diseases.

(2) Carbon monoxide: a colorless, odorless and non-irritating gas, which mainly comes from the decomposition of carbon dioxide gas at high arc temperature. Therefore, the concentration of carbon monoxide is the highest when carbon dioxide gas shielded welding works. It is easy to combine with hemoglobin in human body and extremely difficult to separate. The combination of a large amount of hemoglobin and carbon monoxide will hinder the function of transporting and utilizing oxygen, leading to the necrosis of human tissues due to lack of oxygen.

(3) Nitrogen oxides: toxic gas with pungent odor, mainly nitrogen dioxide, which is reddish-brown gas with special odor. When inhaled, it will enter the lungs and react with water to form nitric acid and nitrous acid, which will cause serious irritation and corrosion to lung tissue and cause pulmonary edema.

(4) Fluoride gas: colorless corrosive gas with severe toxicity. Can be absorbed by respiratory system and skin, can cause bronchitis and pneumonia, and can have toxic effects on the whole body.

3. Arc generated by arc radiation welding mainly includes infrared light, visible light and ultraviolet light. Among them, ultraviolet rays mainly damage eyes and bare skin, causing corneal conjunctivitis (electro-optic ophthalmia) and skin erythema. Long-term exposure to infrared radiation can lead to infrared cataracts.

Second, the protection of occupational hazards in welding operations

In a word, there are many kinds of occupational hazards in welding operations, which are extremely harmful. Therefore, in order to reduce, control and eliminate the occupational hazards of electric welding, a series of effective preventive measures must be taken.

1, improve welding technology, welding technology and materials.

By improving the mechanization and automation of welding, people are separated from the working environment, and the harm of welding operation to human body is fundamentally eliminated; By improving welding technology, reducing the construction of closed structure, adopting single-sided welding for container products, improving groove design, etc. It can improve the working conditions of welders and reduce welding dust pollution. At the same time, improving covered electrode materials and selecting non-toxic or low-toxic covered electrode are also effective measures to reduce welding hazards.

2. Improve the ventilation in the workplace.

Ventilation methods can be divided into natural ventilation and mechanical ventilation, among which mechanical ventilation has a better effect of dust removal and detoxification, so mechanical ventilation measures must be taken when welding closed or semi-closed structures in places with poor natural ventilation. It is worth noting that many manual arc welding places, especially in summer, use fans to directly blow away smoke and dust for ventilation, which will cause smoke and dust to spread to the whole workshop and do more harm.

3. Strengthen personal protection

Strengthening personal protection can effectively prevent the harm of toxic gas and dust produced during welding. Welding operators must use corresponding protective glasses, masks, masks, gloves, protective clothing, insulated shoes, etc. If they work in a closed or semi-closed organization, they also need to wear a gas supply mask.

4. Strengthen occupational health publicity and education and on-site follow-up monitoring.

Necessary occupational safety and health education should be given to welding workers to improve their occupational health awareness and reduce the occurrence of occupational diseases. At the same time, the dust and toxic hazards in the welding workplace should be monitored regularly, and the workers should be given physical examinations regularly, so as to find problems in time and prevent and control occupational diseases.