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Posted By JohnV
I recently visited a site where welding was being carried out in the open. The welders had not erected screens round them to protect nearby operatives and/or visitors from receiving a UV burn to their eye. When I questioned the site manager I was told that screens were not necessary as there was a mandatory light-eye protection policy on site. He said that recent university research confirmed that people wearing light eye protection were not at risk from welding flash. I can understand that the harmful radiation decays with distance from the source of the flash, but have not heard of this research. Has anyone else? Thanks
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Posted By Chris Packham
I would have an additional concern. Arc welding generates high levels of UV-C (which is why a full face shield is needed). UV-C is the part of the UV spectrum that is particularly harmful to the skin. So not having screens in place could contribute to skin problems, such as cancer!
Chris
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Posted By Richard Altoft
Does not sound right to me - light eye protection is against dust not radiation.
A site manager once tried to tell me that he did not have a noise problem as the various radios and ex domestic hi fi's around the place were far louder than the background noise and as noise is unwanted sound and the radios were wanted sound then the background noise was more than cancelled out.
He did not get away with that one.Pat tested all the radios, condemned most and sent him on a noise awareness course.
R
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Posted By Dave Daniel
Any spectacle will stop UV rays reaching the eye. The plastic is opaque at UV frequencies, so the manager was perfectly correct. You used to be able to get clear spectacles for welder's assistants, in the old days of the Eye Protection Regs and before.
Although there remains a theoretical risk of increased UV exposure to skin, I doubt whether anyone gets that close or stays that long for this to be significant. If you did, you'd risk being burnt by the sparks!
Screens are obviously useful, but there are many welding situations where they can't easily be positioned due to the nature of the job.
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Posted By Flic
Chris - thank you for posting that. It led onto a paper by T Lyon, at http://www.aws.org/wj/2002/12/feature/
This is a very interesting paper and may well answer the original query as extensive quantitative measurements were made. I was aware of T Lyon's original paper, back in the 70s, but was unable to give any reference for it.
Flic
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Posted By Bob Youel
After extensive experience in this field, and in my personal opinion, getting a real 'flash' by walking past a welding situation [real heavy duty stuff] at a distance of ~2 meters would not cause the average person a problem and yes standard eye protection [dust etc inclusive of reading glasses] does afford some help at those disitances. If people have to walk past closer that this I advise that they simply put a hand to the side of their eyes [ as they would do in the sun] as they walk past
That said the average person should be using common sense and look to where they are going.
Additionally its very easy to put up some sort of screen - the human body will do nicely, a bit of card board [yes it does burn but only if you let it burn], a bit of tin etc will do the job of screening in many situations
Simply shutting one eyes whilst the welder 'tacks' works wonders
again resort to the old R-Assessment to sort your problems
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Posted By JohnV
Thanks everyone for your responses. I have been aware that UV is blocked by glass (my photochromic lenses on my specs do not darken when I'm using them in the car, whereas they change colour very quickly when I'm walking outside) but have always been in the habit of shielding my eyes with my hand when going past welders - and turning away. In terms of skin cancer, I remember seeing an article some years ago that people who drive for a living (eg truckers) in hot countries, are at greater risk of developing cancers on the back of their hands. (I think the article was Australian). The harmful radiation in this case must be infra red rather than UV as the latter should be blocked by the windscreen of the vehicle.
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Posted By Chris Packham
John
You have been misinformed. UVB is blocked by glass. UVA and UVC are not. UVA can contribute to the development of skin cancer. This is why drivers in Australia have a higher than normal potential for developing skin cancers on their right arm. In countries that drive on the right it is of course the other arm.
Your spectacles react to UCB and not to UVA. This is why they do not darken in the car.
UVA happens to be the primary cause also of skin ageing due to degradation of collagen and elastin.
As an additional point, when selecting sun protection creams remember that the factor only applies to UVB. There is a separate star rating (0-5)for UVA that should also be shown on the packaging.
Chris
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Posted By clairel
I plead ignorance on whether eye wear alone protects. A definitive answer would be good. But knowing this site that will be as likely as a hot summer in Britain!
However, from years of going into engineering companies I can say it is not uncommon to find no welding screens as it is not necessarily practicable to use welding screens. This is especially true for large scale and heavy engineering.
I'm not massively comfortable about it and I am very careful about where I look. I am particuarly careful about my peripheral vision as I believe this can be problematic. I try not to hang about in these areas.
Having said that I have never got arc eye and as these types of areas are usually only used by the welders I can see the justifcation. When you're welding a 20ft piece of steel welding screens are not that practicable!
Like I said though I'd be interested in a definitive answer if there is one.
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Posted By Vrick
Our members seem to be very impatient for a definitive/final answer.
No hurry, it's already a summer friday afternoon.
Crack on........
Vrick
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