Stainless steel can kill you.
The basics of it is that once absorbed into the body it enters the cells through chemical channels it's similar enough to to travel on (sulfates), then after losing a few electrons (valence) it starts dicking with your DNA and promoting mutations and shit.
Of note, it's mentioned that hotworking stainless will put HC into the air but neither the OSHA page nor any other source I found goes into specifics, like what temperature the metal needs to reach or if different alloys influence this on a deeper level than chromium content (does the presence of other elements and/or the quantities of certain ones cause a more or less pronounced release of HC?).
I've been making shit with metal professionally for the better part of a decade, and no fab shop I've ever been in has known of this. First time I've heard of it.
Now surely this isn't any worse than breathing in asbestos dust from grinding wheels, long term UV light exposure from welding arcs, fumes from welding through various cleaners and coatings, zinc poisoning from welding galvanized shit, getting shrapnel embedded in you from an exploding cutoff wheel, or flying down the road at triple digit speeds with an engine between your legs. But it's at least nice to be aware of it.
Now OSHA can generally fuck right off for the most part, but the subject came up today in a welding group I'm on and a dozen or so people there claim to currently have medical issues (cancer of something-or-other, kidney failure, etc.) that were diagnosed as being from HC exposure.OSHA said:
The basics of it is that once absorbed into the body it enters the cells through chemical channels it's similar enough to to travel on (sulfates), then after losing a few electrons (valence) it starts dicking with your DNA and promoting mutations and shit.
Of note, it's mentioned that hotworking stainless will put HC into the air but neither the OSHA page nor any other source I found goes into specifics, like what temperature the metal needs to reach or if different alloys influence this on a deeper level than chromium content (does the presence of other elements and/or the quantities of certain ones cause a more or less pronounced release of HC?).
I've been making shit with metal professionally for the better part of a decade, and no fab shop I've ever been in has known of this. First time I've heard of it.
Now surely this isn't any worse than breathing in asbestos dust from grinding wheels, long term UV light exposure from welding arcs, fumes from welding through various cleaners and coatings, zinc poisoning from welding galvanized shit, getting shrapnel embedded in you from an exploding cutoff wheel, or flying down the road at triple digit speeds with an engine between your legs. But it's at least nice to be aware of it.