AWS EWH-11 ✓ Most Recent [ Active ]

Introduction

The health of workers in the welding environment is a major concern of the American Welding Society. To stay abreast of this subject, the health literature is periodically reviewed and published in the report Effects of Welding on Health. Ten volumes have been published to date; the first covered data published before 1978, while the remainder covered 1 to 3 year periods between 1978 and December, 1994. The current report includes information published between January 1995 and December, 1996. It should be read in conjunction with the previous volumes for a comprehensive treatment of the literature on the Effects of Welding on Health. Included in this Section 1 of this volume are studies of the characteristics of welding emissions that may have an impact on the control technologies necessary to protect the welder. In keeping with previous volumes, health reports and epidemiological studies of humans are discussed in Section 2 and organized according to the affected organ system. Research studies in animals are discussed in Section 3.

Many of the studies on the effects of welding on health published during the current report period focused on matters that have been explored in the older literature. The question of whether or not welding causes a decrease in the function of the lungs or causes an increased incidence of pulmonary diseases such as bronchitis continues to be explored. Investigations of the association of asthma with welding increase in number as the prevalence of both occupational and nonoccupational asthma increases worldwide in industrialized countries. As in the past, attention is focused on the incidence of lung cancer in welders and the contribution of the potential carcinogens nickel and chromium encountered in stainless steel welding to the incidence of the disease. Current studies do not indicate that stainless steel welders are at a greater risk for developing lung cancer than are mild steel welders. However, studies in laboratory rats showed that stainless steel welding fumes are cleared more slowly from the lungs than are mild steel welding fumes. Studies from Ukraine continue to focus on the deposition and potential deleterious effects of iron in organs other than the lung. While, as in the past, no studies focused on health effects of welding in women due to their small representation in the trade, two articles addressed the question of ergonomic, safety, and sociological stresses faced by female construction workers.