How to Solve Common Workplace Hazards for Shipbuilding Workers

Common workplace hazards for shipbuilding workers can lead to serious injuries and health issues. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent dangerous situations and ensure safety during shipbuilding operations.

Here are some ways to address common workplace hazards for shipbuilding workers.

Ensure Ventilation in the Workplace

During welding operations, workers can inhale hazardous vapors like nitrogen oxide, cadmium, iron oxides, and manganese. These can lead to a variety of serious short- and long-term health concerns. One of these issues is siderosis, or zinc fever. It’s caused by iron dust inhalation. Symptoms include fever, nausea, and coughing and can last for about 24 hours.

Fumes from solvents, pigments, and anti-rust components in paint can also lead to health issues with short- and long-term exposure. For example, inhaling or ingesting lead-based paints can result in lead poisoning.

The best way to prevent toxic fume exposure is to ensure proper ventilation. Welding and painting in a well-ventilated area brings in clean air and reduces the amount of toxic fumes in the vicinity. Using respirators and hose masks when working can also help to reduce exposure.

Use the Proper Protective Equipment

When welding, the eyes can be exposed to radiant energy or light radiation emitted from an arc or flame. This can cause arc eye, or welder’s eye, which is an inflamed cornea. Symptoms of this issue may not appear until several hours later. When they do appear, your eyes may become red, watery, and painful. They may also feel gritty and be sensitive to light.

To prevent exposure to radiant energy, use protective equipment. These include goggles, a welding face shield, helmets, and safety glasses. However, regardless of which you use, it’s important to make sure that it has filter lenses that provide the right level of protection.

Equipment with filter lenses has shade numbers that indicate the intensity of light radiation that’s allowed to pass through the filter lens to the eye. If the shade number is higher, the filter is darker and allows less light to pass through. Simply put, items with higher shade numbers will provide more protection during welding operations.

Ensure That Operations Meets Safety Standards

By far, the most common workplace hazards for shipbuilding workers are injuries sustained when performing repairs and maintenance. Industrial tools and machinery used during these operations can fail, which can result in falls and electrocution. Many workers experience loss of hearing due to reverberant noise as well.

When it comes to machinery hazards, the best way to avoid injury is to ensure that everything meets industry standards and is used correctly. This will help to reduce failures as well as workplace injuries.

Workplace hazards for shipbuilding workers are common. However, they can be avoided with the tips listed above.

Read CPV Manufacturing’s blog for more workplace tips.