Issues of ill health in the surface engineering industry

The surface engineering industry is so diverse that it would be impossible to list all the health issues which could potentially arise from all activities. This can be through exposures to physical hazards (eg vibration), ergonomics hazardous substances. Historically, there were certain industries which gave cause for concern resulting in reports of ill health and disease. Some of these issues still exist within this industry group.

Evidence suggests that the main causes are:

Occupational Asthma (and cancer) ^[12]– inhalation of hexavalent chromium, nickel and cadmium mists
Musculoskeletal (eg back) injuries^[13] – eg lifting/carrying heavy and/or awkward objects
Dermatitis^[14] - eg use of irritant and allergic chemicals (nickel, powder coatings, chromium etc)
Work-related asthma^[15] - eg use of two-pack (isocyanate) paints
Vibration white finger^[16] – eg from polishing mops, hand-held grinders
Occupational Asthma^[17] - inhalation of powder coating dust

Further information

Case studies of typical injuries and ill-health^[18]

Link URLs in this page

Surface engineeringhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/index.htm
What is surface engineering? https://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/what-is.htm
Health and safety in surface engineeringhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/in-industry.htm
Health topics in surface engineeringhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/health-topics.htm
Safety topics in surface engineeringhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/safety-topics.htm
Application of COMAHhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/comah.htm
Overview - Resourceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/resources.htm
Publicationshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/information.htm
Case studieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/experience.htm
Statisticshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/stats.htm
Useful linkshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/links.htm
Occupational Asthma (and cancer) https://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/occupational-asthma-mists.htm
Musculoskeletal (eg back) injurieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/index.htm
Dermatitishttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/index.htm
Work-related asthmahttps://www.hse.gov.uk/asthma/index.htm
Vibration white fingerhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/vibration/hav/index.htm
Occupational Asthmahttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/introduction-powder-coating.htm
Case studies of typical injuries and ill-healthhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/surfaceengineering/experience.htm
First aidhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/firstaid/index.htm
Manual handlinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/index.htm
Noisehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/noise/index.htm
Vibrationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/vibration/index.htm
Report an accidenthttps://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/index.htm

Glossary of abbreviations/acronyms on this page

COMAH: Control of Major Accident Hazards