Each year over 1000 work related accidents to welders are reported to the Health and Safety Executive. Around 300 of these accidents will be classified as major injuries such as fractures and amputations.
The three most common types of accidents reported are:
Frequent heavy lifting and handling can cause back injuries. In 2003/04, 37% of all reported welding accidents were manual handling related.
In 2003/04 slips and trips made up over 13% of all the accidents to welders. A significant number of these were major injuries.
Breathing in welding fumes can lead to some serious diseases, fume extraction is often needed to suck fumes away from the welder and others nearby .
