Patrick,
I don't think you're picking on me, don't sweat it
. I totally understand where you're coming from. Like I said earlier, I was surprised at how the fumes were going right around my helmet... If I wasn't the one in the video, I'd think that the dude doing the welding is either really good at holding his breath, or he's breathing nothing but smoke and fumes. But let me tell you, that definitely was not the case!! Like I said, I could smell the fumes, just like you can smell fried chicken cooking... but the air behind the hood was very breathable... It wasn't until after I raised my hood after finishing a bead that I felt that the fumes had actually assaulted me. If I'd been breathing the fumes in the amount that they were coming up around my helmet, you can be assured that you would have seen a coughing, choking, hacking fit. And I WAS breathing... you (or at least I) can't weld a decent bead while holding your breath. (*Tip to new welders: Don't forget to breathe! Welding a good bead while holding your breath is HARD!)
I agree, if at all possible, you should try to mitigate the amount of fumes that you breathe in. Especially if welding painted metal, or even far worse, galvanized.
Zinc fume poisoning (from galvanizing) is very real! I've never heard of any deaths or long term effects from it that I can remember, but I can attest that if you ever get the 'fever, you'll
wish you were dead. Back when I was still working on the farm, we welded up some gates from galvanized pipe that we came up with from somewhere. We all drank some milk, and had fans set up to blow the fumes away, and then drank some more milk after we finished, but at the end of the day, we still were feeling the effects of breathing the fumes... not fun! Don't weld galvanized metal if you can avoid it... but sometimes you can't.
But also like you, I don't want to create an alarmist knee-jerk reaction to normal welding fumes. There's already too much alarmist knee-jerk reaction to EVERYTHING in this country... the People's Republik of Kalifornia is a prime example. Is there ANYTHING that doesn't cause cancer in Kalifornia??? California is becoming a laughing stock. I didn't realize until this year that Christmas lights cause cancer in Kalifornia
...
Just smelling the fumes I don't believe is harmful, especially at the average exposure levels experienced by "hobby" welders like myself and probably 90% of the other welders on this website. Your nose and body will tell you if you're getting too many fumes. Welding has been around a long time, and if the fumes as a whole were that bad, with people dropping like flies from just the slightest inhalation of fumes, welding equipment would not be nearly so available to the general public like it is. Pro weldors would be wearing astronaut suits before they ever struck an arc... Especially in Kalifornia
. But that just isn't' the case. There's lots of scientific evidence out there that shows that normal occupational exposure to welding fumes is not harmful. Like all things, different people may react differently, but on the whole...
Now don't take that to mean that I'm saying that it's OK to inhale all the fumes that you can... that's ludicrous. Just use common sense, and try to minimize the amount that you breathe. If you feel that you're getting too many fumes, then you probably are. If you are quite comfortable breathing the air that you're getting inside your hood, then you're probably OK. Just use the common sense that the Good Lord gave you, (if the public schools haven't totally stripped it all out) and you'll probably be OK.
I think that's enough on this subject, at least in this thread, I'd rather it didn't evolve into another internet pee for distance contest
We can start another thread for that.
