MetFab - Welding Fume Handbook - Flipbook - Page 12
4 Health and safety regulations in the UK
Regulations exist throughout the
world placing general requirements on
employers to provide a safe working
environment. Beneath the umbrella
of these general regulations are
other, more detailed, regulations that
refer to specific industries, processes,
substances or hazards.
In the UK, the regulations that apply to
health and safety considerations arising
from exposure to particulate welding
fume and gases are:
• the Health and Safety at Work etc.
Act 1974
• the Management of Health and Safety
at Work Regulations 1992
• the Control of Substances Hazardous to
Health Regulations 1994
The Health and Safety at Work etc.
Act 1974 (HASAWA)
Such information is usually supplied in
the form of health and safety leaflets,
material safety data sheets (MSDSs) or
on package labels.
The Management of Health and Safety at
Work Regulations 1992
The "Management Regulations" guide
employers in assessing the health and
safety risks to employees arising from
their work.
The Management Regulations do not
directly specify any actions to be taken
as a result of the health and safety
assessment. Instead, actions derive from
compliance with other, more detailed,
regulations - in the case of welding
fume, the COSHH Regulations.
The Control of Substances Hazardous to
Health Regulations 1994 (COSHH)
The COSHH Regulations apply to people
at work who are exposed to hazardous
The Health and Safety at Work Act
substances. Particulate fume and
imposes duties on everyone concerned
with work activities, including members gases from welding come under the
COSHH Regulations, and six sections are
of the public.
especially relevant.
Section 6 of the Act requires articles
Regulation 6: Assessment of health risks
and substances for use at work to be
created by work involving substances
as safe and without risk to health as is
hazardous to health
reasonably practicable. Suppliers must
provide enough information to allow
their customers to use these articles and
substances without risks to health or
safety.
For welding consumables including
MMA electrodes, MIG/MAG wire and
flux-cored arc welding wire, this means
that health and safety information,
including details of the fume
composition emitted during welding,
must be supplied.
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In the case of welding fume, this
means assessing workers' exposure to
particulate fume and gases, deciding
whether exposure can be eliminated,
and if not, deciding how to control it.
The main factors affecting exposure are
the composition and concentration of
the fume and the duration of exposure.
