Dashpivot Article – Welding Safety Hazards

Welding Safety Hazards

Why is it Important to Understand Welding Safety Hazards?

Welding is one of the more dangerous occupations, which means people working in these roles experience welding safety hazards regularly, and need to manage these hazards effectively.

One of the most important aspects of managing hazards is being aware of them, so that you have the patterns established to see them quickly and easily.

Most of the hazards associated with welding relate to burns, although there are also more hidden hazards including eye damage and inhalation issues.

Hazards lead to near misses and incidents if not mitigated and managed, so the goal of this article is to equip you with a better understanding of welding safety hazards.

What are the hazards of welding?

The most common hazards of welding include burns, fire, respiratory issues, loud noises, radiation and eye damage.

See below for a summary of each of these hazards.

Burns

Burns are the most common welding injury. These burns can be caused by interaction with the heat and sparks from welding, as well as actual contact with welding torches and hot surfaces.

Proper protective gear (PPE) is the most effective way to limit the constant burn risk, including flame-resistant clothing and gloves, is essential.

Hot works procedures and permits can also ensure correct risk assessments are conducted, which drastically reduce the incidents of avoidable burns.

Eye Damage

Welding emits intense light which can cause 'welder’s flash' or arc eye, which are conditions which can lead to both acute and chronic eye issues.

Welders who face prolonged exposure periods which can increase the risk of permanent vision damage if the correct protective eyewear like welding helmets are not used.

Note that many welding safety hazards are chronic in nature, so focusing on incrementally damaging safety hazards is critical, as well as potential quick/fast issues.

Inhalation of Fumes and Gases

Welding can create hazardous fumes and gases, as metals and coatings heat up. Specialised coatings and metals (including lead, chromium etc.) emit potentially toxic fumes.

Prolonged exposure without good ventilation and respiratory PPE can result in respiratory diseases and increased risk of certain cancers including lung cancer.

Electric Shock

Electric shock is a pretty significant welding safety hazard, especially where high-powered welding equipment is involved.

The proper grounding of equipment, proper electrical safety processes and the use of insulated gloves and boots can mitigate this hazard well.

Fire and Explosion Hazards

The sparks and heat from welding can easily ignite flammable materials, which are relatively common in welding and industrial environments. Some of these materials include solvents, paints, and hydrocarbons.

The ket to reducing this welding safety hazard is good storage practices. The safe storage of flammable materials and use of spark and intrinsically safe equipment keeps environments clean and less flammable.

Hearing Loss

Most people associate welding with contact hazards (burns) and visual issues, but welding often takes place in loud environments, hence noise being a more hidden and yet still constant safety hazard.

Noise protection (earmuffs etc.) are very effective against this hazard but not used enough, so ensuring people understand the hazards and impact of noise pollution goes along way here.

Ultraviolet and Infrared Radiation

Welders can be exposed to significant amounts of harmful UV and IR radiation emitted during the welding process.

Radiation is often a slower and more silent welding safety hazard, so education around the risks is critical to people taking it seriously.

Proper clothing and barriers e.g curtains really help protect from exposure to and through the skin.

You can learn more about welding safety precautions to take against these hazards here.

Strategies for Educating and Helping Workers on Welding Safety Hazards

Educating workers about welding safety hazards is half the battle, if people are aware and care, they will usually take simple and effective precautions for themselves and those around them, which then creates a culture of safety.

The strategies outlined below focus on practical approaches to sharing knowledge and raising awareness about the dangers of welding safety hazards:

Training Programs

Training programs (both theoretical and practical aspects) of welding safety can significantly enhance worker knowledge and preparedness.

These programs can cover the different types of hazards we explained above, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for welding safety hazards, and the correct handling of welding equipment.

Training should also include real world examples and demonstrations to give workers hands-on experience in identifying and dealing with potential hazards safely rather than just pure theory.

Holding a Toolbox Talk on Welding Safety Hazards

Toolbox talks are workplace group discussion that focus on a particular safety issue or toolbox talk topics.

Welding safety hazards is the perfect toolbox talk topic for workplaces which associated with welding, as it brings awareness to all.

The talk should be conducted at the start of a shift to raise awareness heading into the shift. You can start with a brief description of common welding hazards such as burns, eye damage, and inhalation of fumes, and explain the health risks associated with each.

Combining a toolbox talk with some practical demonstrations about how to mitigate and manage these welding hazards is a perfect one-two combo for building real change.

Encourage questions and discussions among workers to get them talking about the welding safety hazards they come across regularly, as they often have the best gauge of hazards associated with this project, site etc.

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Visual Aids, Signage and Prompts

Putting up visual aids and signage around the workplace can serve asa constant reminder of real and potential safety hazards.

The most common visual aids against welding safety hazards are PPE signs, but you can also include other signage which flag and remind workers about common hazards and what they can do to simplify safety on top of the obvious tactic of using PPE.

Safety Audits and Feedback Loops

No matter how good your safety training and strategies are, you will still need to closely monitor that people are sticking to and adhering to the safety standards which have been set.

Having a dedicated Health and Safety Manager of leader really helps with this, as they can focus their time on assessing safety KPIs and performance.

Conducting an internal safety audit can feel like overkill, but it is often completely necessary. It ensures that you catch underlying issues before they propagate through the company and result in real incidents.

Doing your own audits and establishing your own internal feedback loop always preempts potential external audits and issues which can shut work (and entire companies) down.

Mitigating Welding Safety Hazards using Technology

The world of welding has been filled with welding technology for a long time, but it is now starting to include other aspects of technology, including the use of proper data capture and information acknowledgement tools.

Many welding companies and operations now erect QR code posters which link to pre start templates and other safety documentation which workers need for safety and compliance purposes.

This way, workers can prompted to actually submit a risk assessment, job safety analysis or similar, which steps them through and have them acknowledge the steps they need to take to reduce welding safety hazards right now.

This is great for workers, and also ensures that a company is compliant from a safety perspective, as everything is documented and stored properly.

Almost all of the common welding safety hazards we discussed can be linked back to better information sharing, which can be really streamlined through proper technology.

Welding is a dangerous activity and occupation, and likely always will be. But like with all aspects of workplace safety, there are a number of daily measures we can put in place to limit welding safety hazards for our teams, and we have highlighted a number of them above.

Safe Work Method Statement for Welding template

Keep all of your welding operations and all of your welders as safe as possible by maintaining a trusted and reliable source of truth on welding safety.