Retention and clearance of stainless steel shieldgas welding fumes in rat lungs.

The use of metal inert gas (MIG) stainless steel (SS) welding techniques is rapidly increasing. The possible health hazards of MIG/SS welding fumes are not known; more attention has been paid to manual metal arc (MMA) welding. In this study, 52 male Wistar rats were exposed to MIG/SS welding fumes generated by an automatic welding device for "nose only" exposure. For the retention study, the duration of exposure was one hour per workday for 1,2,3, and 4 weeks. For the clearance study, the duration was 4 weeks, and the follow-up period was 106 days. The retention and clearance of the alloyed metals of SS (chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni] and iron were studied in the rats' lungs, and the results were compared with the corresponding results of MMA/SS welding. The multielement chemical analysis was made using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA); the concentration of exogeneous iron (Feex) was determined by a magnetic measuring method. Feex and Cr were retained in the ratio expected; Mn, Ni and total Fe were retained slower than expected. The total Fe did not clear at all even though Feex cleared with the half-time of 50 d which corresponded well with that of pure magnetite. The accumulation of Cr in the lungs was very high: it cleared with the half-time of 240 d. The clearance patterns of Mn and Ni were very similar. They followed a double exponential model with half-times of 2 d and 125 d for Mn, and 3 d and 85 d for Ni. The results indicated that even though the retention patterns for MMA and MIG welding fumes were very similar, the clearances differed very much.

Corrosion of mild and stainless steel by four tropical Desulfovibrio desulfuricans strains.

The corrosion potential of four tropical Desulfovibrio desulfuricans isolates was determined using a semicontinuous batch culture technique in a 56-day test incubated at 37 degrees C. The corrosion potentials for mild and stainless steel of marine or brackish water isolates (0.55 and 0.0026 mg cm-2 day-1) were observed to be approximately twice those of freshwater isolates (0.23 and 0.0014 mg cm-2 day-1). Under comparable experimental conditions of severe anaerobic corrosion, stainless steel was found to be over 200 times more resistant than mild steel.