Health warning!!

sandbagger · Nov 23, 2014

Perhaps this should be a sticky?

This is a warning to anyone out there who wants to weld your cosplay suit and chooses to ignore precautions thinking it will never happen to you. I knew the dangers and took what I thought were adequate precautions by opening up the workshop to the wind. Obviously not enough. My own stupid fault but please take heed, it could have been a lot worse.

Please Google galvanising poisoning. In fact, Google poisoning of any material you are using. Glue, Resin, Fibreglass, Bondo, Rondo, even you foam builders out there heating up your foam with heat guns and soldering irons. LOOK IT UP!

Here's my horror story.

I got a bad hit of galvanising poisoning a while back while welding and oxy-cutting heavy bridge beams in a large workshop. Welding all day with three roller doors open but it wasn't enough. Left work feeling like I had been licking a block of chalk all day and feeling slightly wrong.

Worst night of my life. I felt like I was literally going to die. Pain. So much pain. Cold chills, hot saturate-the-bedsheets sweat, locked joints, aching muscles, felt bruised all over like I had been run over by a truck. Every part of my body was screaming at me, "WTF did you do to me!!??" Spent two hours running the hot water system out of hot water sitting curled up on the shower floor in agony. 9pm first symptoms, 2:30 am passed out.
9am next morning - good as gold like nothing had happened.

I NEVER, EVER want to go through that again.

Perhaps if any of my fellow cosplay builders have experienced any kind of ill effects from materials or processes, you could share here as warning to others?

Philly · Nov 23, 2014

sandbagger said:
Perhaps this should be a sticky?

This is a warning to anyone out there who wants to weld your cosplay suit and chooses to ignore precautions thinking it will never happen to you. I knew the dangers and took what I thought were adequate precautions by opening up the workshop to the wind. Obviously not enough. My own stupid fault but please take heed, it could have been a lot worse.

Please Google galvanising poisoning. In fact, Google poisoning of any material you are using. Glue, Resin, Fibreglass, Bondo, Rondo, even you foam builders out there heating up your foam with heat guns and soldering irons. LOOK IT UP!

Here's my horror story.

I got a bad hit of galvanising poisoning a while back while welding and oxy-cutting heavy bridge beams in a large workshop. Welding all day with three roller doors open but it wasn't enough. Left work feeling like I had been licking a block of chalk all day and feeling slightly wrong.

Worst night of my life. I felt like I was literally going to die. Pain. So much pain. Cold chills, hot saturate-the-bedsheets sweat, locked joints, aching muscles, felt bruised all over like I had been run over by a truck. Every part of my body was screaming at me, "WTF did you do to me!!??" Spent two hours running the hot water system out of hot water sitting curled up on the shower floor in agony. 9pm first symptoms, 2:30 am passed out.
9am next morning - good as gold like nothing had happened.

I NEVER, EVER want to go through that again.

Perhaps if any of my fellow cosplay builders have experienced any kind of ill effects from materials or processes, you could share here as warning to others?

I second this, avoid welding anything zinc coated, or do you're best to grind it away first.

I use an air fed mask now.

Murdoch · Nov 23, 2014

Truly sad that you had to learn the hard way. But high praise to you for this special announcement focusing on saftey. Truly hope that you're ok, we need to see your build to the end. Rather than your build being the end of you...GM

sandbagger · Nov 23, 2014

Murdoch said:
Truly sad that you had to learn the hard way. But high praise to you for this special announcement focusing on saftey. Truly hope that you're ok, we need to see your build to the end. Rather than your build being the end of you...GM

Problem was, I knew about it. I've been around this stuff most of my life. I got cocky and thought, "She'll be right, that'll do."

OUCH.

- - - Updated - - -

Philly said:
I second this, avoid welding anything zinc coated, or do you're best to grind it away first.

I use an air fed mask now.

I ground each joint back a half inch from the end to be welded. Not enough.

halopepakura · Nov 23, 2014

Pro-tip: When welding zinc or galvanized metals,drink milk. I know it sounds stupid, but I learned it years ago and I never got poisoning, even without air flow. The milk coats your esophagus and the zinc will stick to that and go into your stomach instead of your lungs. Just take a swig ever 30 min or so to be safe, then drink a glass of it afterwards to coat your stomach the rest of the way and dilute it. 7+ years and still no incident

laellee · Nov 23, 2014

/\ this sounds like dangerous advice to me, 7 years or not. Use proper PPE and ventilation.

sandbagger · Nov 23, 2014

halopepakura said:
Pro-tip: When welding zinc or galvanized metals,drink milk. I know it sounds stupid, but I learned it years ago and I never got poisoning, even without air flow. The milk coats your esophagus and the zinc will stick to that and go into your stomach instead of your lungs. Just take a swig ever 30 min or so to be safe, then drink a glass of it afterwards to coat your stomach the rest of the way and dilute it. 7+ years and still no incident

I read that on the night and was in so much pain I was willing to try anything. I drank nearly two litres over the course of the night. It sounded like a wives tale but I didn't care at that point.

This from WIKI

A traditional remedy is to consume large quantities of cow's milk, either before or immediately after exposure.[1] However, this advice is challenged by the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive (the national independent watchdog for work-related health, safety and illness), who write "Don’t believe the stories about drinking milk before welding. It does not prevent you getting metal fume fever."[13]

Wes R · Nov 23, 2014

Funny that people say it work but the so-called experts say it doesn't. I'd trust the milk before the doctors.

halopepakura · Nov 23, 2014

laellee said:
/\ this sounds like dangerous advice to me, 7 years or not. Use proper PPE and ventilation.

Of course! I don't want to encourage dangerous practices. Its just for stubborn people who don't always want to wear PPE or work in an open shop.

Dracosfire83 · Nov 23, 2014

Had something similar happen a couple years back. While welding a aluminum trailer's floor plates together the argon gas managed to pool in my welding helmet and set me into a violent coughing fit for almost 20 till I managed to get it out of my system.

sandbagger · Jan 4, 2015

Bump. Just to keep folks aware of the dangers of our various cosplay trades. Good to keep reminding folks.

GardsVision · Jan 4, 2015

halopepakura said:
Pro-tip: When welding zinc or galvanized metals,drink milk. I know it sounds stupid, but I learned it years ago and I never got poisoning, even without air flow. The milk coats your esophagus and the zinc will stick to that and go into your stomach instead of your lungs. Just take a swig ever 30 min or so to be safe, then drink a glass of it afterwards to coat your stomach the rest of the way and dilute it. 7+ years and still no incident

Sorry but that makes no anatomical sense. The esophagus is the tract to the stomach it has nothing to do with the lungs, the trachea lies next to the esophagus and is the tract to the lungs however they are separated in the larynx which is at the highest point of your neck. Further more the outmost layer of cells is specifically designed to get things down the tracts so giving them a "milk coat" isn't really plausible over more than a minute or two.

Searching through pubmed and my university's archives i haven't been able to find any published articles about using milk as a treatment for metal fume fever, this means that it falls in the realms of alternative medicine (which doesn't mean natural medicine, but means we have no evidence that this works, or we have evidence that it doesn't work.)

Since there are no studies on the matter this is just my personal speculation. This seems like your classical placebo medicine (or old wives tale) it might have started with someone who had a better resistance to these symptoms who also just happend to drink milk each day, then a co-worker who didn't drink milk regularly tries it, expecting it to help and it seems like it does. (in the same way that a tic tac is a great pain reliever if you are told it is a aspirin). Thats all fine and good until someone who might have a decreased resistance comes along and is told that all they need to do is drink milk and its fine, however this kind of placebo medicine only dulls the signals that something is wrong it doesn't actually treat the problem in any way.

laellee said:
[...] Use proper PPE and ventilation.

Spiderguy · Jan 4, 2015

Journeyman b pressure welder here. Drinking milk doesn't do jack. Proper ventilation and ppe are the only things that work. Also be aware of any coatings on the metal as certain ones can turn to phosphene gas in the presence of the arc flash and kill you.

Health warning!!

sandbagger

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Philly

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Murdoch

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sandbagger

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halopepakura

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laellee

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sandbagger

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Wes R

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halopepakura

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Dracosfire83

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sandbagger

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GardsVision

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Spiderguy

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