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HEALTH SAFETY & THE ENVIRONMENT
Gromiec, revealed that approximately 160 000 people were involved
in welding in that country, including 70-80 000 full-time welders. A
joint meeting with the ECONWELD Project Technical Committee
in Gliwice also revealed even more staggering statistics – there were
over 730 000 full-time welders and 5.5 million welding-related jobs
in Europe. Welding had a high impact on the health of these
workers leading to a high percentage of sick leave estimated
at 160 hrs/year for each welder.
38
Brown also presented a
brief update on manganese litigation in the USA, commenting
that in March 2008, welding electrode manufacturers lost
their case in Mississippi but won one case in Louisiana.
The plaintiff in Mississippi was awarded USD 2.9 million
damages for manganism against three welding rod manufacturers in the Mississippi District
Court, by Judge Kathleen O’Malley. In the case of the Louisiana claims the judge took
only one hour to dismiss those brought on by four welders, based on the arguments by
the manufacturers that they suffered Parkinson’s disease and not manganism. The report
covering these cases said that ‘After consecutive trial victories by plaintiffs, including the
one in Mississippi, counsel for the welding rod manufacturers can take a deep breath after
a big win in Louisiana’.
39
Industry was by now recognising the increasing importance of
welders’ exposure to a number of environmental factors which potentially
contributed to chronic health problems among welders. Several shipyards in
Europe were participating in a programme following a meeting of SC-SHIP
in Odense, Denmark, in September 2003. Boekholt and Kadefors were both
instrumental in the support of this exercise and in reporting back to C-VIII
on the programme which had as one of its principal aims to keep qualified
professional welders on the job up to a normal retirement age. It was now
becoming clear that industry faced increasing difficulties in replacing skilled
welders and in attracting young people to start a career in welding. This had
industry lamenting ‘where have all the welders gone?’
40
Although resolution of health problems in welding and shipbuilding, in particular,
were relatively slow at first, there were encouraging signs that creative engineering and
research into ergonomics were providing solutions for the minimisation, or prevention, of
health issues. Ergonomics was to become a key discipline in cutting out the heavy manual
labour involved in welding and consequently the musculoskeletal disorders that were the
major cause of early retirement for welders. It ideally fitted into the work of the Multinational
European Project, ECONWELD and the many other national occupational health projects
around the world. IIW, through C-VIII members, was able to promote and highlight these
Ken Brown