is machining/cnc bad for your health?

[roadtrip]

all that dust/tiny particles from different types of metal that you breath in, wouldnt it be dangerous for your health, does anyone experience any side effect from this? also i heard machining shop dont have air conditioner/heater, is this true? thanks for reply.

[Geof]

Any dust can be bad for your health if you breath it constantly, machine shops are not unique in this hazard. Actually machine shops are a lot less hazardous from a dust point of view than woodworking shops, body shops, welding shops and probably others, because most metals when machined do not produce fine dust. Even when the metal does produce fine dust this can be controlled by machining using a coolant which will trap the dust or wearing filter mask.

It is also true that many machine shops do not have air conditioning but probably most do have heating in colder areas of the country.

[wjfiles]

Also unhealthy if your fingers get in the way of the cutters
WJF

[allesg]

Inhaling metal dust can be extremely hazardous. Metal poisoning is very bad news - even just a metal shard broken off under your skin. To understand this you need to know about free radicals and toxic metals. You will simultaneously learn a lot about keeping yourself healthy.

You can read more about this than you probably need at
Life Glow Oral Chelation Formula

FWIW, if you suspect you might have metal poisoning, I can't reccomend a better place to start researching it than at the same web site.
I'm very glad I found it when I did. It helped me in several ways.

Gary

[roadtrip]

thanks for all the replies, so it seem that cnc is a dangerous job, is this why this field is so demanding?

[Geof]

Originally Posted by roadtrip thanks for all the replies, so it seem that cnc is a dangerous job, is this why this field is so demanding?

How do you come to that conclusion?

[underthetire]

Yes it's dangerous. You dealing with sharp objects all the time, possible cutter/part ejections at high velocities, burning coolant, metal fines, standing for hours at a time, and lots of stress. You need to put it in perspective though, ever watch Deadliest Catch ? Thats an extreeme job. on a scale of 1-10, i would say it's a 6. It probably wont kill you, but most machinist don't live to be 90 either.

[roadtrip]

Originally Posted by Geof How do you come to that conclusion?

i was just assumed that that the moment. To my common sense, i think that it doesnt matter how clean the shop is (which is not from what ive seen) or how frequently you use coolant to trap the dust. there will always some dust from those metals that floating in the air because there is such thing as a perfect clean environment. So you will evently inhaled in a huge junk of those toxic over long period of time and it might lead to cancer or other illness, but im no doctor or researcher so i cant really prove it. So i think what i really want to know is how many people out there have or think they are having illness due to being in this field.
Another thing i want to know, aside from the problem i mentioned above, how high is the chance of getting accident, such as getting fingers cut off, burn skin, electrocuted..ect..thanks

[underthetire]

In fact, I know several people with health issues from metal dust, or absorption. beryllium was very common, so was asbestos and lead. There are many others, and we may not know long term effects with carbon fiber,titanium, or other "newer" materials. Aluminum was even linked to Alzheimers, don't know if it was ever proven or not. Do we really know what some of these synthetic coolants are going to do long term?

[Cecile]

Hi,
Thats why companies like these provide health insurance policies to its employees because the danger of your fingers get in the way of the cutters.
There should be some effective legislation for workers like these.
Thanks

[DouglasR]

yes, there is a certain amount of inherit danger, in the shop. But then, I've know guys who work in the meat department of supermarkets that incur every bit as much hazard, if not MORE.

The most dangerous thing about machining is complacency. Getting lazy with safety regs. Also, there are just some folk who don't see danger regardless of what is in front of their eyes or what you tell them.

Years ago, I had a guy who came in the shop who just LOVED playing with the shop air hoses. He would spritz himself, others, and blow things around the floors and benches to keep himself entertained. Infuriating. I finally had to threaten outright termination to get him to stop.

Same guy decided that he, with all of three weeks of basic operator experience, was going to be the main set up guy and replace me. He demonstrated this on a Victor TNS-2 CNC lathe by playing with the toggle switches while it was running a part - smashing the machine to pieces, causing $12k in damage. I escorted him to the door personally.

[underthetire]

The guy at the meat counter knows when things go wrong, it's obvious right away. Just like a part coming out at your head. Your not going to die from loosing a finger, but a 80lb part will surely kill you. I've seen the end result. The thing that scares me more is long term health problems. A few years ago when I was an independent, I went to fix a easy trak, this was a decent sized shop. I normally wouldn't work on them, but I was contracted by Masco at the time to do most of there service work in this area. Got the machine fixed, then the shop manager said "oh, by the way, we cut beryllium on that machine sometimes". I wasn't to worried about the actual BE, but I was pissed that he decided to tell me after the fact. At least I would have worn gloves.