During welding jobs in construction production, workers are exposed to a set of hazardous and harmful factors. Welding workflows are accompanied by the negative impact of a specific chemical factor, a welding aerosol that is a mixture of harmful solid and gaseous substances, on the worker’s organism. Non-compliance with hygienic norms causes various occupational diseases and disablement before retirement among workers engaged in welding operations. Harmful substances in the air of working areas are detected during the specific assessment of working conditions. According to the results of measurements, in case of excess of the maximum permissible concentrations of harmful substances, a list of recommended measures to improve working conditions that include, as a rule, reduction of the contact period with harmful substances as well as the introduction of hazard pay, is composed. However, the potential reduction of the concentration of harmful substances upon the assessment of various factors as to the specific working conditions is not considered. The study provides air measurement results at 15 workplaces where the composition of the welding aerosol exceeds the maximum permissible concentrations. Thus, in working areas of electric-gas welders, it has been detected that the ozone content excess reaches 20 %, and at workplaces of electric-gas welders of manual welding, it reaches 40 % (up to 50 % for manganese). By ranking factors of harmful substance concentration reduction, the most significant factor with the highest weighting factor (qi) has been determined. As a result of the implementation of correcting measures, including the substitution of welding material composition, ozone (to 50 %) and manganese (to 56 %) concentrations have been reduced. The approach proposed in the study solves the relevant task of the reduction of chemical impact at workplaces by assessing various factors affecting the content of harmful substances in welding aerosols and the implementation of the respective correcting measures.
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