Process SafetySafety is a major concern in industry today and everyone should strive to work in a safe and healthy manner. During welding and cutting a variety of different hazards can occur, these include general issues such as workshop safety to very specific problems such as the production of ozone. Each hazard can be created in a number of ways, from poor working practices to being generated by specific wavelengths of light. Health effects on the human body must also be a consideration to both manager and user alike, and if there are ways in which the hazard can be reduced then these must always be considered. One possible method of reducing health effect is by the provision of personal protective equipment. However, choosing the correct item for your application may not be that simple. There are often several different types of product, which would be the best for your application? For example what criteria would you use to choose a pair of gloves for MIG welding? Guidance is given on a range of PPE to allow an educated decision to be made. Each fabrication process has a range of safety hazards associated with it. In TIG welding there is little particulate fume generated and the noise produced by the process is quite low, however, when welding some materials high levels of ozone can be generated. It is therefore, important to understand what hazards a process produces and what can be done to minimise them. The fume data section looks at the particulate and gaseous fume generation for specific process and material combinations. While only general data is given it can be useful, especially to industrial hygienists, in understanding what potential hazards may be present.
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