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MANGANESE AND WELDER'S DISEASE
Mixed Bag: Can exposure to manganese fumes really put welders at higher risk for Manganism? Or is this yet another case of people looking for somebody to sue?
By Kyndall Brown
Poor air quality in welding stations can cause illnesses ranging from minor irritations to life-threatening diseases. Much attention has been paid in the past to the effects of hexavalent chromium, but more recently a new culprit has come under increased scrutiny: manganese.

By 2010, welding facilities must have an air filtration system in place that removes hexavalent chromium from the air. Welding operations must reduce the permissible exposure limit from 52 to 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air. .
Manganese fumes produced during welding operations has become a hot button issue in workplace safety, leading to thousands of product liability lawsuits against manufacturers of arc welding supplies because those fumes are deemed to cause "Manganism", a serious, incurable, chronic illness with symptoms resembling those of Parkinson's Disease (PD). Some even refer to Manganism as "the welder's disease" due to the alleged high incidence in welders. Those exposed to fumes from welding rods have called it the "next asbestos" or the next "hex chrome".
But are these claims true? The research gives mixed results.
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