Posted By Jane Blunt Dear Clive Plasma cutting is noisy. The fume that you get depends a great deal on what you are cutting, and you will need to make an assessment. The fume and gas will depend on both the material being cut, and also on the plasma gas. If nitrogen is used, you will get oxides of nitrogen, and ozone may be formed particularly when cutting stainless steel (or aluminium). You can reduce the amount of fume by choosing a gas such as argon/hydrogen and by avoiding using excessive power, but you will probably need extraction. The fume tends to be produced mostly below the plate. Down draft high volume LEV may be recommended. You need to take into account the spatter and sparks that may arise. However, many modern plasma cutting machines have the workpiece in water, and this reduces fume, noise and radiation in one go. You never get anything for nothing, though, because then you have to assess the possibility of the water being ejected as droplets (legionella !!). The plasma emits UV and visible light. Shade numbers between 8 and 10 (depending on current) are needed where the jet is visible. The open circuit voltage could be high - it could be hundreds of volts. Getting zapped by the HF if that is the method of striking the arc is pretty unpleasant as well. Jane