Development of Welding Fumes Health Index (WFHI) for Welding Workplace's Safety and Health Assessment.
BACKGROUND
This study aimed to develop an index that can rank welding workplace that associate well with possible health risk of welders.


METHODS
Welding Fumes Health Index (WFHI) were developed based on data from case studies conducted in Plant 1 and Plant 2. Personal sampling of welding fumes to assess the concentration of metal constituents along with series of lung function tests was conducted. Fifteen metal constituents were investigated in each case study. Index values were derived from aggregation analysis of metal constituent concentration while significant lung functions were recognized through statistical analysis in each plant.


RESULTS
The results showed none of the metal constituent concentration was exceeding the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for all plants. However, statistical analysis showed significant mean differences of lung functions between welders and non-welders. The index was then applied to one of the welding industry (Plant 3) for verification purpose. The developed index showed its promising ability to rank welding workplace, according to the multiple constituent concentrations of welding fumes that associates well with lung functions of the investigated welders.


CONCLUSIONS
There was possibility that some of the metal constituents were below the detection limit leading to '0' value of sub index, thus the multiplicative form of aggregation model was not suitable for analysis. On the other hand, maximum or minimum operator forms suffer from compensation issues and were not considered in this study.
1. Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia , Johor, Malaysia.
Azian
A
Hariri
1. Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia , Johor, Malaysia.
Nuur Azreen
NA
Paiman
2. Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia , Johor, Malaysia.
Abdul Mutalib
AM
Leman
1. Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia , Johor, Malaysia.
Mohammad Zainal
MZ
Md Yusof
Aggregation analysis; Index; Malaysia; Welding fumes