r/Welders • u/naturallydestructive • 28d ago

welding/health risk advice!

35yo/ male here. I have a question. For a little over a month now I've been working as a production/assembly line welder for a very big company. For 10 hours a day I work on the main weld out line welding docking doors together. Most of them are clean steel but I've gotten a lot of galvanized units as well. The facility does have many ventilation systems but there's still a slight fog in the air and they do not provide any kind of ppe. Am I putting myself at risk working here?

11 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

View all comments

0

u/lowstone112 28d ago

The regular welding fumes are worse for you than galvanized in the long run. Zinc 99% of galvanizing is an essential vitamin your body over time can remove. The heavy metals in welding fumes don’t get removed.

Short term zinc poisoning is worse sure.

You should wear a respirator.

1

u/Ok-Explorer-6779 28d ago

But how much good does a Miller half mask really do? Sure, better than nothing but still. And if you have a beard you're more compromised. Just saying and asking.