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For those of you who have been in an
environment where welding, grinding or machining take place without
extraction or filtration it is very, very easy to understand the reason
for investing in at source extraction
Welding and soldering fumes
The pollutants that are created by
welding (welding fumes) partly consist of gases and partly of particles.
Some particles are so small that they are not visible. These are the
most dangerous as they pass through the walls of your lungs and onwards
into the blood. The most common particles in welding fumes are iron
oxide, cadmium oxide, zinc oxide and magnesium oxide but also present can
be particles of asbestos, nickel, chromium, copper etc. Common
effects of soldering and welding fumes are eye irritation, damage to the
kidneys, metal fume fever, allergies, siderosis, lung oedema, headaches,
lack of concentration, chest pains, loss of memory and also cancer.
Solvents and dust
Other environments where dust and
fume extraction are necessary include, for example, chemical laboratories,
printing workshops (when handling solvents) plastics industry (for plastic
moulding and plastic welding, glass fibre coating etc.), bakeries (for
example when handling flour).
Fume extraction at source goes
without saying for those people who have been exposed to these hazardous
environments. |
