05 December 2024
The Health and Safety Inspectorate (HSI) will be undertaking a targeted series of inspections of businesses working in the fabricated metal sector in the coming weeks.
The inspections will focus on 3 areas:
- management and control of welding fume exposures
- management of metalworking fluids (MWF) and the control of the health risks associated with skin contact with MWF and the inhalation of MWF mists
- machinery safety
Other matters of evident concern, such as the management and control of noise exposure, will be addressed as required.
Legal requirements
Article 3 of the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989 places a duty on employers to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees whilst they are at work. This general duty extends to:
- the identification and assessment of workplace risks to health and safety
- provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health
- arrangements for ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable, safety and the absence of risks to health in connection with the use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances
- provision of necessary information, instruction and training to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of all the employer’s employees
Why this sector
Welders and fabricators can be exposed to several hazards in the normal course of their work, including exposure to:
- harmful fumes
- harmful gases
- ultraviolet radiation
- chemicals, including MWF
- risk of injury from workplace machinery and lifting equipment
Due to this known range of hazards along with scientific, medical and other data on incidences of occupational injury, ill-health and death amongst welders and fabricators, this sector is considered high-risk.
The International Association for Research on Cancer has concluded that all welding fume can cause lung cancer and may cause kidney cancer, and has classified all welding fume as Group 1 carcinogenic substances (IARC). Therefore, employers are required to prevent or, where that is not reasonably practicable, adequately control employee exposures to welding fume. Appropriate control measures include controlling fume at source via suitable local exhaust ventilation (LEV) alongside the provision of suitable respiratory protective equipment (RPE) to control residual risk.
Metalworking fluids, a catch-all term for the neat oils or water-based fluids used as lubricants or coolants during the machining and shaping of metals, can cause:
- skin irritation or dermatitis via direct contact
- when inhaled as a mist, lung diseases, such as;
- occupational asthma
- occupational hypersensitivity pneumonitis
- bronchitis
- irritation of the upper respiratory tract
- other breathing difficulties
In the most serious cases, these health effects are irreversible and career and life-limiting.
Fabricated metal premises use a range of machinery, such as lathes, steelworkers, saws and milling machines to turn, cut, punch, crop, notch and bore metal. As such, appropriate guarding measures should be in place to prevent access to the dangerous parts of these machines.
Further guidance
Welding fume
COSHH Advice Sheets for welding, cutting and surface preparation on HSE
Pneumonia vaccination for employees exposed to welding and metal fume on HSE
Metalworking Fluids
COSHH essentials guidance sheets for machining with metalworking fluids on HSE
Guidance videos on management of MWF produced by the UK Lubricants Association
Good Practice Guide for Safe Handling and Disposal of Metalworking Fluids (UKLA)
Machinery Safety
Safety in the Use of Machinery Approved Code of Practice
Guidance on the Chains, Ropes and Lifting Gear (Jersey) Regulations, 1980
Guidance on the Cranes and Lifting Appliances (Jersey) Regulations, 1978
Safe Use of Power Presses - Approved Code of Practice and Guidance for the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (as applied to power presses) on HSE
General guidance
Health and Safety in Engineering Workshops on HSE
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