Burn injury may seem like a hazard that welders face every working day. After all, they are using a process that involves molten metal and high temperature welding arcs. However, most burns suffered by welders and others in the welding environment are avoidable, and are often caused by carelessness, or failure to take the required precautions.
Burns may occur to the skin, or, potentially more seriously, to the eyes. The source of the hazard may be hot metal, whether this is a welded component or part of the welding equipment, like the nozzle on a MIG gun, arc rays, flames, chemicals, or even liquid gases. Safety precautions are largely common sense, although accidents will happen from time to time.
What Is It?
A burn is an injury to body tissue, usually the skin or eyes, which can be caused by heat, extreme cold, radiation, or chemicals. The severity of the resultant tissue damage varies enormously, depending on many factors.
Burns are classified into three categories:
First Degree Burns
These are the least severe, they are a superficial type of burn, which affect only the outer layer of the skin.
Second Degree Burns
These are more severe than first degree, these burns result in blistering, and the outer surface of the skin is damaged and infection can be a consequential problem.
Third Degree Burns
These are deep burns in which the entire thickness of the skin is destroyed, and nerve tissue is often damaged too.
Causes of Burns
Hot Metal and Flames
Hot objects making contact with the skin or eyes, or flames impinging on unprotected areas are responsible for what are known as 'dry' burns causes can include:
- Preheated or welded components, which may be very hot for some time before or after welding.
- Spatter and sparks emitted during welding.
The degree of burn from these sources depends on the temperature, the duration of contact, the area of contact, and the speed of application of first aid or medical intervention.
Arc Rays
Most of the sources mentioned so far are fairly obvious as you can see and often feel the effect almost immediately, but perhaps one area which gets overlooked most often is radiation from the electric welding arc.
The severity of an isolated injury is related to the power of the arc, the distance from the arc, and the duration of exposure.
Electric Current
Electrical burns are caused when electricity of sufficient current and voltage passes through the body.
Liquid Gases
Liquid nitrogen, oxygen, and all other liquid gases, and solid CO2, can cause severe damage due to exposure to extreme cold, and these are known as 'cold' burns.
Chemicals
The most likely source of chemical burns are acids or caustic solutions, which are used in pre-treatment or cleaning shops to remove grease and dirt, or in analytical laboratories which are used for etching welds.
Lasers
Lasers produce parallel beams of visible light, are sources of intense heat and will burn.
Safety Precautions and Protective Clothing
Most of the safety precautions applicable to preventing burns are just plain common sense. These include:
- Always assume all metal objects, welding torches, electrodes, slag, etc in a welding shop are hot.
- Do not pick up anything without ensuring it is cool enough to handle.
Safety Precautions and Protective Clothing
In the event of a burn injury occurring, unless of a superficial nature, treatment should be carried out by qualified first aider or medical personnel. If such people are not available, there are some general rule of thumb guidelines that may be applied to help the casualty.
Dry burns, those due to hot objects and flames, to the skin should be cooled as quickly as possible to minimise tissue damage.
Radiation burns to the skin can be treated with proprietary creams, if they are severe, medical treatment should be sought to prevent possible infection.