Galvanise Poisoning

[Bsmith]

Day 3 of coughing, chest rattling, feel sick and dizzy when I bend.
Welded some galvanised scaffold pipes together for a frame to set the hydraulic press frame on that I'm making. Was'nt weather due to rain on Thursday to do the job outside so I did it in the 'too small a shed', had fan blowing on work, ground most of the galvanise off the weld area but it's still inside the pipes, at times the atmosphere in the shed was light blue and white fluffy stuff floating around. Well another lesson learned.

DON'T WELD GALVANISED WITHOUT ADEQUATE VENTILATION.

 

[Pete.]

Bad news that stuff. some people are more sensitive than others, I guess you know what your sensitivity level is now.

 

[brightspark]

did once weld some galve scaffie pipes . just made my throat tight and feel a bit stuffy for a day

 

[Muppet]

I used to work for a company who fabricated zintec sheets, day in day out,
The place was full of blue haze, no extraction,
I used a fan to blow away the white wisps,
Didn't know any better, when I told them I was throwing up at work, was told to get some fresh air,
Luckly the contract ended, took months to get the **** out of my system,

 

[winchman]

When I was an apprentice welders got free milk? something to do with welding galv?

 

[Hood]

When I was an apprentice welders got free milk? something to do with welding galv?

Aye and an old wives tale, doesn't work.
from the HSE

Metal fume fever
Many welders report flu like symptoms after welding. The effects are often worse at the start of the working week. Metal fume fever is usually linked to welding or hot work on galvanised metals. High exposures to mild steel weld fume can also cause this illness. Metal fume fever does not usually have any lasting ill effects. Don’t believe the stories about drinking milk before welding. It does not prevent you getting metal fume fever.

 

[Bsmith]

Aye and an old wives tale, doesn't work.
from the HSE

Metal fume fever
Many welders report flu like symptoms after welding. The effects are often worse at the start of the working week. Metal fume fever is usually linked to welding or hot work on galvanised metals. High exposures to mild steel weld fume can also cause this illness. Metal fume fever does not usually have any lasting ill effects. Don’t believe the stories about drinking milk before welding. It does not prevent you getting metal fume fever.

I have heard that drinking milk helps if you have this fever though, so I had a couple of liters over the weekend, dunno if it helped, starting to improve a bit today.

 

[123hotchef]

did once weld some galve scaffie pipes . just made my throat tight and feel a bit stuffy for a day

now I know why my throat is tight and swollen I was welding some galv yesterday too!

 

[Hood]

All I can tell you is when I had Galvi Flu it was bad.
Only had it once and don't intend to get it again.
Woke up in the night, sweat pouring out of me, short of breath, felt freezing cold and every bone and muscle in my body ached and was a struggle to even move, next day, about mid afternoon I was right as rain.

 

[steve t]

i had it bad once, horrendous, so don't weld up things out of galv now, not worth it

 

[Brad93]

You should use the proper mask or PAPR and extraction.

 

[Ed.]

On one of the other forums I frequented, one of the member's father died from it. Not worth the risk without protection.

 

[Farside]

DON'T WELD GALVANISED WITHOUT ADEQUATE VENTILATION.

I did that a couple of years ago when I was using some galvy strapping to reinforce a trailer frame. I thought I'd cleaned enough of the zinc back, but obviously not and I felt really rough for a week. I'm now a lot more careful about that. It's not as if I didn't know, but the safety lesson had been so far back in the mists of time that I'd only recalled the general precaution, and I don't recall being so badly affected by it before.
Lesson learned.

 

[fixerupper]

Just about all of the welding stuff that I do is galv stuff ...all the light box I buy here is galv ...it's my go to material for light weight fab ...I've never had any reaction....the fumes ....when I worked for GEC back in the dim distant ...I worked in a shop where I quite often flame cut galv ducting and welders welded modified ducting that had been galvanised ....so maybe I must have a high tolerance ....

 

[Hood]

Just about all of the welding stuff that I do is galv stuff ...all the light box I buy here is galv ...it's my go to material for light weight fab ...I've never had any reaction....the fumes ....when I worked for GEC back in the dim distant ...I worked in a shop where I quite often flame cut galv ducting and welders welded modified ducting that had been galvanised ....so maybe I must have a high tolerance ....

Could possibly be the stuff that tends to give problems is the Hot Dipped sections such as you find on trailers and other structures as the galv is thick where the stuff on sheets/ducting etc is fairly thin.

 

[fixerupper]

Yeah I think there is a huge difference to the hot dip stuff I used to work on ...the place I worked we made ducting up 72 inch diameter out of 1/8 up to 1/2 inch plate a rolled and welded in sections with 5/8 flanges all mild steel...then off to be hot dipped ....we then got it back and the fans and electrics were fitted in another part of the factory ....we would get some stuff back that needed changing like a bigger access door or different fan struts or mounting brackets .... The lightweight 50 /20 galv box I buy here is totally different... ....

 

[Rocketman]

No idea why people aren't welding with carbon face masks suitable for welding you only get one set of lungs.

 

[Bsmith]

Pic of the bug that caused the flu. I have welded more galvi at a time than this before but it was either outside or in a large building. The shed I have now is far too small for this kinda fumes. I have heard of galvi flu before in the distant past, but never had it. As I said before, rainy day outside and really wanted to get on with the job, yes idiot.