Hi all,

I am a big advocate of safety.
I found this article a few years ago and take every opertunity to share it.

If you weld or use brake cleaners you must read this one page article.
Alot of us tend not to read warning labels until it is too late.

You must take the time to read them!!

 

that is nothing new.
it has been posted at least 20 times over the last 10 years.

 

Yup, I realise it is not new info, but it could be new to somebody out there. Sorry for the repost...

 

ok, just wanted to make sure you knew it was old news.

 

Its new news to me. Thanks for posting again. Chances are I would not have run across it in one of the other threads because I wasn't looking for it but happened to open and read your post. I can't say I've done what the guy in the article did but I'll make sure I'm more careful about reading the warnings for unintended consequences.

Sounds like a typical guy though...waited 9 days to go to the hospital.

 

That is new news to me as well. And kinda scary when you think about it. I use brake cleaner all the time. Even for killing wasps. Might have to find a better product or be more careful with the stuff now.
Thanks for posting.

 

Very few of us think of any damage from fumes. I partially blame my Dad's early death from welding galvanized metal and breathing the fumes.

 

Good safety info to post. Especially to all the newer members that haven't seen that posting before.

I've never seen brake cleaner that did not evaporate in a couple minutes, puddled or not. That guy must have been in a hurry to weld, right after spraying the tank. When i spray with brake cleaner i walk away to get a drink or take a break for a few minutes then get back to work. I find that the brake cleaner has all evaporated away.

When i first started reading and studying how to weld, not welding on galvanized metals was the first and biggest no-no that i read about. That is some very toxic stuff. Sorry to hear about your dad's early passing. I wonder if the safety warnings that we have in place today were in place 20, 30, 40+ years ago?

 

Very doubtful. He started welding in the Navy in WW2 and welded his whole life. A union welder on everything from pipe fitting to nuclear power plants. I remember him complaining about the stuff he was coughing up after being on a galvanized job. Bad part is, I never touched a welder till after he was gone. Talk about a waste of resource on my part. Youngest son enters tech school this fall in welding. Then he can show me how it's susposed to be done.

 

Any welding produces chromium hexafluoride, which causes nervous system damage and after time produces symptoms similar to alzheimer's.
Any welding should be done with proper ventilation.

 

I welded galvanized pipe once, never again. I thought I was going to die. I got the sweats, and chills, my lungs hurt and I got the shakes.

Like I said, never again!

 

always a good post, even if just one person hasn't seen it before.

 

Where safety is involved, a re-post is not unwarranted.

 

Well you sure told him mr. 20,000 posts doubt we could find any redundancy in any of them either.

To the op, thanks for sharing for those of us who do not know everything.

 

When welding galvanized steel, I use a respirator with the P100 filters(flat pink filters on respirator fits inside welding helmet). Welding outside with proper
ventilation is a must.
Keep in your face out of the smoke plume also helps.

I had no ill effects using the respirator.

Another toxic material people do not bother to protect themselves
from is 2 part epoxies used in carbon fiber construction. I also
use the same respirator when I mess with that stuff. The epoxy
fumes are almost odorless, but very dangerous.