Application of five methods in the occupational health risk assessment of workers exposed to welding fumes

Objective: To assess the health risks of welding fume jobs with five occupational health risk assessment methods, and to compare the advantages, disadvantages and applicability of these methods in the health risk assessment of welding fume. Methods: The International Commission for Mining and Metals (ICMM) occupational health risk assessment method, MES method, the qualitative method and comprehensive index method in GBZ/T 298-2017 "Technical Guidelines for Occupational Health Risk Assessment of Chemical Hazardous Factors in the Workplace" were used to assess the risk of welding fume exposure positions in four manufacturing enterprises in Tianjin in March, 2020. The assessment results of different methods were standardized by risk ratio (RR) . Results: After the results were standardized, the results of enterprises 1, 2 and 4 were negligible risks, enterprise 3 was medium risk in the ICMM matrix method and MES method, and the results of ICMM quantitative method for each enterprise were negligible risk, low risk, extremely high risk and low risk, respectively. The results of the qualitative assessment of the guidelines for all companies were negligible risks, and the comprehensive index method were medium risks. Conclusion: The five models are all suitable for occupational health risk assessment of welding fumes, but they all have certain shortcomings. They should be combined with qualitative and semi-quantitative assessment results for comprehensive analysis.