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- QUESTION
Welding fumes are a common occupational exposure. Several different welding fumes can cause similar adverse health effects. Personal sampling of a welding operation at a manufacturing facility produced the following 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) results for individual metal fumes.
Metal Fume Result OSHA PEL ACGIH TLV
Antimony 0.05 mg/m³ 0.5 mg/m³ 0.5 mg/m³
Beryllium 0.00001 mg/m³ 0.002 mg/m³ 0.00005 mg/m³ (I)
Cadmium 0.025 mg/m³ 0.1 mg/m³ 0.01 mg/m³
Chromium 0.02 mg/m³ 1 mg/m³ 0.5 mg/m³
Copper 0.03 mg/m³ 0.1 mg/m³ 0.2 mg/m³
Iron Oxide 0.5 mg/m³ 10 mg/m³ 5 mg/m³ (R)
Magnesium Oxide 0.02 mg/m³ 15 mg/m³ 10 mg/m³
Molybdenum 0.003 mg/m³ 15 mg/m³ 10 mg/m³ (I)
Nickel 0.25 mg/m³ 1 mg/m³ 1.5 mg/m³ (I)
Zinc Oxide 0.3 mg/m³ 5 mg/m³ 2 mg/m³ (R)
(R) Respirable fraction (I) Inhalable fractionBriefly summarize the primary health effects associated with overexposure to each type of metal fume, including both acute and chronic health effects. Explain what analytical methods you would use for evaluating health hazards in the workplace.
Identify the types of metal fumes that would produce similar health effects on an exposed worker. Assume that each listed metal can cause respiratory irritation. Use the equation in 1910.1000(d)(2)(i) to calculate the equivalent exposure (in relation to OSHA PELS) for the metal fumes with similar health effects based on the “Result” column in the table above. Discuss whether you believe any of the individual metal fume exposures or the combined exposure exceeds an OSHA PEL or an ACGIH TLV.
Your homework assignment should be a minimum of two pages in length.
| Subject | Nursing | Pages | 3 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Time Weighted Average
The major health impacts of prolonged exposure to some of the metal fumes are detrimental. In human beings, the effects included ulcers, reproductive disturbance, altered EKG readings, and increased blood pressure. The exposure can also cause upper respiratory tract soreness to people especially workers. The exposure can also cause deaths that result from lung cancer mortalities especially to workers who are exposed to the substances for longer periods. Other effects include signs of upper respiratory tract irritation such as nose bleeding, upper airway inflammation, and laryngitis respiratory tract irritation including encompasses laryngitis, nose bleeding, rhinitis, as well as, upper airway inflammation.
Some of the health and mental effects of extreme exposure to metal fumes include:
Antimony: An exposure to antimony can cause heart problems because it can damage muscles of the heart and alter electrocardiogram (EKG) readings. High levels of antimony in the drinking water can cause abdominal pain and vomiting.
Breyllium: Essentially, exposure to Breyllium can affect various organ systems such as immune system, digestive, respiratory, and cancer classification. Other key challenges include probable human carcinogen.
Cadmium: Inhaling air with high level of cadmium can adversely damage lungs and at times cause. Moreover, inhaling high quantities of cadmium for a longer duration, particularly one or two years can lead to accumulation of cadmium within the kidney and when relatively high can cause kidney diseases, as well as, other problems related to the kidney.
Chromium: workers who are sensitive to chromium may develop asthma as well as, other symptoms of respiratory disorders when exposed to this substance. Some of these problems include cough, dyspnea, wheezing. Similarly, exposure to chromium for a long duration can cause high chances of death because of the non-cancer respiratory disorder. Other problems associated with extreme exposure of chromium entail nasal perforation, as well as, other respiratory impacts.
Copper: high quantities of copper can cause detrimental impacts including irritation of the mouth, nose, and eyes. Other challenges include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, stomach cramps, and even death.
Iron Oxide: expose to iron oxide may affect the lungs leading to siderosis. At the same time, exposure of zinc oxide can harm different body systems. First, it can harm the digestive system, respiratory system and hematology among others.
Magnesium Oxide: prolonged exposure to this substance can affect cardiovascular (blood and heart vessels), nervous system, liver and respiratory system among others.
Molybdenum: Although there is scarce information regarding the impacts of extreme exposure of molybdenum to human beings, intake of this substance can cause cough, redness of the eye, as well as, mechanical irritation.
Nickel: Principally, prolonged exposure to this substance can detrimentally harm blood and heart vessels, immune system, skin, kidney and urinary system and respiratory system.
Mental Fumes with Similar Health Impacts and Combined Exposure
From the description above and the results initially provided in the table, it is clear that copper, iron oxide, molybdenum, nickel and antimony may all cause nose, throat, eye, lung, and mechanical irritation. Their computation of combined exposure entails:
Em =
=0.7002.
From the informatio about the welding fumes provided in the initial table and the above computation performed for similar or equivalent exposure, it is evident that the result obtained from the combined exposure does not surpus OSHA’s PELs or ACGH’s TLVs. Nonetheless, there is need to further review cadmium and discuss how to manage or reduce engineering controls.
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