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Safety Data Sheets

Metal Fume Fever

Welding of certain materials can give rise to fume containing freshly formed metal oxide fume. If inhaled in sufficient concentration it can produce a reaction similar to a bout of flu. This is what is commonly known as Metal Fume Fever.
Although it normally lasts no more than a day, it is possible to get an attack of fume fever more than once. However, there is no evidence to suggest that repeated bouts cause cumulative damage.

The metal oxides usually associated with metal fume fever are those of zinc and copper, although others can have the same effects. In welding and cutting it is working with copper alloys, galvanised and some painted components that are most likely to this problem.

Alternative names for metal fume fever include, 'Zinc Fume Fever', 'Brass Chills' or 'Brass Founders Ague'. These derive from the regular occurrence of fume fever in workers employed in brass foundries, where zinc, with its low boiling point (907oC), would boil-off when added to molten copper at 1083oC, forming zinc oxide in the air.