Welding Fume Exposure among Welders in Small Size Welding Workshops in Malaysia

Abstract

Welding fumes has both acute and long term chronic hazards. Small size welding workshops often have the drawback in health and safety consciousness. This study is conducted to investigate the personal welding fumes exposure among welders in small size welding workshop. Two workshops were selected to represent a very small welding workshop (2 workers) and a medium workshop (8 workers). The main activities in these workshops were metal inert gas welding (MIG) process onto mild steel material. Welding fumes was sampled for 8 hours and analyze by the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results of the study showed that only iron element existed notably in time weighted average (TWA) 8 hours calculation for both workshops. However, welding fumes exposure for both workshops were well below the permissible exposure limit (PEL) as stated in the Use and Standards of Exposure of Chemical Hazardous to Health regulation (USECHH) 2000 under the Malaysian Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994.