[Respiratory impairment and metal exposure in a group of 68 industrial welders].

A group of 68 currently employed welders were examined who were exposed to welding fumes either for the whole or for at least half the working day and who used at least two welding processes, which were mainly manual metal arc welding and metal active gas welding, but also metal and tungsten inert gas welding, or oxyacetylene welding. The welders were classified into 3 groups according to the class of materials used, i.e.: 1) only mild and stainless steel; 2) mild and stainless steel and other metals; 3) only other metals. Chronic bronchitis symptoms were observed in 22% of the subjects; signs of suspected radiological fibrosis were present in 18%, initial signs of radiological fibrosis in 4%. Small airway disease was prevalent in the smokers (28 smokers versus 2 nonsmokers); one worker had an obstructive syndrome and another a restrictive syndrome (both were smokers). There was a good correlation between years of exposure and: 1) MEF25 in non-smokers; 2) urinary cobalt in the whole group. There was also a correlation between smoking and FEV1, MEF50, MEF25, PaO2 and urinary cadmium. Serum copper was higher in workers exposed full time than in those exposed part time. Urinary chromium and cobalt and serum copper were high in steel welders, lower in welders using steel and other metals and low in welders using other metals. Urinary chromium was similar in smokers and non-smokers. Serum zinc was found to be of little use for biological monitoring of welders. Urinary chromium was studied for one week in 10 full-time exposed steel welders. The difference between the chromium values at the end of the workshift and those at the beginning was small (low current exposure); the chromium values at the end of the workshift were not uniform in the whole group (different past exposure levels).