3. Welding-related health and safety issues

Welding assembly techniques can generate a large number of risks. These can be very varied in nature: smoke production, fire risk, explosion risk, burn risk, electric shock risk, heat production, radiation and noise. It is therefore important to protect not only the welders themselves, but also other workshop personnel, for example. Depending on the welding process, the risks involved are not always the same. The two main risks encountered in most welding processes, and more particularly with electric arc welding, are the production of smoke and the generation of radiation.

• Welding fumes can be composed of :

• metallic dusts resulting from the volatilization of elements from base metals or filler metals. A case in point is the volatilization of chromium (Cr VI ion) during stainless steel...