Ask a welder what the job smells like and they will tell you without thinking. Hot metal, burnt flux, that sharp gray haze that hangs just above the work. For most of the people I talk to, the smoke was never a warning sign. It was just what a working day looked like — in a fab shop in Omaha, a plant in Columbus, a railcar repair yard, or on a jobsite with a portable rig and no fan.
The science on that smoke has changed a lot, and many welders have never been told.
What the world's cancer agency concluded
The International Agency for Research on Cancer — the World Health Organization's cancer research arm — classified welding fumes as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2B) back in 1989. It later re-examined the evidence and moved welding fumes to Group 1, carcinogenic to humans, its highest category. As AIHA reported on the evaluation, IARC concluded that welding fumes cause lung cancer, noted positive associations with kidney cancer, and also classified the ultraviolet radiation from welding as Group 1, finding it can cause ocular melanoma — a cancer of the eye.
"Carcinogenic to humans" is not a "maybe."
What OSHA says prolonged exposure can do
OSHA's own fact sheet, Controlling Hazardous Fume and Gases during Welding, lists what is in welding fume — manganese, chromium, nickel, cadmium, lead and a long list of other metals — and what breathing it over time can cause:
- Lung damage and cancers, including lung, larynx and urinary tract.
- Metal fume fever, stomach ulcers, kidney damage and nervous system damage from certain fumes.
- Parkinson's-like symptoms from prolonged exposure to manganese fume.
- Hexavalent chromium when welding stainless steel — chromium converts to its hexavalent form in the process, and that fume can damage the eyes, skin, nose, throat and lungs and cause cancer.
- Suffocation hazards in confined or enclosed spaces, where shielding gases displace oxygen.
The same fact sheet explains how exposure is controlled: local exhaust ventilation at the plume, general ventilation, cleaning coatings off the metal first, respirators when ventilation isn't enough, and no welding in confined spaces without ventilation. When a welder gets sick after years without any of that, the question of why nobody provided it matters.
Not every weld puts the same thing in the air
"I was a welder" is the start of the story, not the whole of it. OSHA's fact sheet lists the things that drive how much fume a worker actually breathes: the type of welding process, the base and filler metals, the rod composition, whether the work was outside or in an enclosed space, the welder's work practices, air movement, and whether ventilation controls were used.
The process matters more than most people realize. OSHA ranks the common arc methods from most fume to least: flux-core first, then stick, then MIG, then TIG. A man who ran flux-core wire inside a tank for ten years had a very different day than someone doing TIG work on a bench next to an open bay door.
So did the metal under the arc. Stainless steel and chromate coatings bring chromium. Paint and solvent residue left on the work add their own exposure, which is why OSHA says surfaces should be cleaned first. And OSHA warns that working outdoors "does not guarantee adequate ventilation."
Those details are what turn a general warning into a specific exposure history.
Manganese and the nervous system
Lung cancer gets the headlines, but the calls that worry me most are from welders whose hands have started to shake.
According to NIOSH's page on welding fumes and manganese, long exposure to high manganese levels in air "may lead to a Parkinsonian syndrome known as 'manganism,'" with symptoms that can include tremors, slowness of movement, muscle rigidity and poor balance. NIOSH also notes that some studies found welders exposed to low manganese levels did worse on tests of brain function and motor skills.
A tremor in a sixty-year-old man is easy to file under "getting older." If you welded for years and a neurologist is evaluating you for a movement disorder, tell them about the welding — the processes, the years, the ventilation. Whether your condition is connected is their call. They can't make it without the history.
Stainless steel work leaves a paper trail
Hexavalent chromium is one of the few welding hazards with its own federal rule. OSHA's chromium (VI) standard for general industry, 29 CFR 1910.1026, sets a permissible exposure limit of 5 micrograms per cubic meter as an 8-hour average, and an action level of half that. Construction has a parallel rule, 29 CFR 1926.1126.
The rule does more than set a number. Each covered employer "shall determine the 8-hour TWA exposure for each employee exposed to chromium (VI)." Medical surveillance must be offered at no cost to workers exposed at or above the action level for 30 or more days a year, to workers with symptoms, and after an emergency exposure. And the employer must keep "an accurate record of all air monitoring conducted."
For a stainless welder, that means there may be sampling results, medical surveillance files, or an obvious gap where those records should be. Either one tells us something.
You have a right to see your exposure records
Many welders don't know this. Under OSHA's access rule, 29 CFR 1910.1020, an employer must, on request, give an employee access to the exposure records relevant to them. Those records include workplace air monitoring, biological monitoring results, and safety data sheets. If the employer can't provide access within 15 working days, it has to tell you why and when you'll get it.
The retention periods are long. Exposure records must be kept "for at least thirty (30) years," and medical records "for at least the duration of employment plus thirty (30) years."
Practical steps:
- Make the request in writing and keep a copy.
- Ask specifically for air sampling, any chromium or manganese results, safety data sheets for the rods and wire you used, and your medical surveillance file.
- Write down the products yourself — brand, rod or wire type, base metals, and process — while you still remember them.
- List your respirators, the fans and fume extractors you had (or didn't), and the confined spaces you worked in.
Building a welding-exposure claim
These cases are rarely simple. The exposure happened over years, often across several employers, and sometimes with products — rods, wire, consumables — that carried their own risks. Depending on the facts, a claim may involve workers' compensation, a product claim against a manufacturer, or both. Sorting that out starts with a detailed work history reconstruction: what metals, what processes, what ventilation, for how long.
The workers' comp side
Nebraska's comp law covers occupational disease, but it defines the term narrowly. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-151 limits it to a disease "due to causes and conditions which are characteristic of and peculiar to a particular trade, occupation, process, or employment," and it "excludes all ordinary diseases of life to which the general public is exposed."
That last phrase is where insurers aim. Lung cancer and tremors both occur in people who never struck an arc, so expect the carrier to call your illness an ordinary disease of life. The answer is evidence that your exposure was a hazard of welding itself — the fume, the metals, the enclosed spaces — and medical opinion tying your condition to it. I explain more about what conditions comp covers and how medical causation is proven on my workers' comp pages.
Timing matters too. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-137 bars comp claims not resolved or brought by petition within two years, with that period extended when benefits have been paid. Get advice early on when your clock started.
The product side
Comp generally runs against the employer. The companies that made the rods, wire, or fume equipment are a separate question, and I've written about claims against parties other than your employer. A product claim in Nebraska carries its own deadlines: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-224 requires suit "within four years next after the date on which the death, injury, or damage complained of occurs," along with an outer repose limit tied to when the product was first sold. A box of rods gets burned up quickly; a welding machine may be thirty years old. That is one more reason the product details matter. My Nebraska statute of limitations guide covers these limits in full.
What the other side usually argues
"He smoked." Smoking is the first thing raised in nearly any lung cancer case. It doesn't erase a welding exposure. Doctors weigh both, and the question is whether the work contributed.
"Everyone gets Parkinson's." A movement disorder after years of manganese fume calls for a careful neurological workup and a full work history, not a shrug.
"We gave him a respirator." Ask which one, whether it was fit-tested, and whether ventilation was ever installed. OSHA's fact sheet puts ventilation first and says respiratory protection may be required when work practices and ventilation don't bring exposure down to safe levels.
"He worked at six different shops." Multiple employers make a case harder to organize, not impossible to prove. That's what the records request and coworker interviews are for.
Start with the doctors, then the evidence
Causation in any individual case is a medical question for your doctors. My job is to make sure the evidence is gathered while coworkers still remember and records still exist. If you have just received a diagnosis, my cancer diagnosis legal checklist walks through the first steps.
Why welders and their families call me
I have spent my career on the side of working people, and I understand that a welder's lungs paid for a lot of other people's buildings, trucks and bridges. I dig into the work history, find the products and the companies behind them, and build the case a manufacturer or insurer can't wave away. My clients have recovered more than $23 million, including a $5.4 million result, and they describe that representation in many five-star reviews. My firm was voted Best of Omaha for personal injury law in 2025 and 2026.
If you welded for a living and are now facing lung cancer, a neurological diagnosis, or another serious illness, talk to a Nebraska toxic exposure lawyer before evidence disappears. Call me at (402) 378-9208 or contact me here. The consultation is free, and there is no fee unless I win.
Frequently asked questions
- Are welding fumes classified as a cancer-causing agent?
- The International Agency for Research on Cancer — the World Health Organization's cancer research arm — classified welding fumes as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2B) back in 1989. It later re-examined the evidence and moved welding fumes to Group 1, carcinogenic to humans, its highest category.
- Can welding fumes cause Parkinson's-like symptoms?
- Lung cancer gets the headlines, but the calls that worry me most are from welders whose hands have started to shake. According to NIOSH's page on welding fumes and manganese, long exposure to high manganese levels in air "may lead to a Parkinsonian syndrome known as 'manganism,'" with symptoms that can include tremors, slowness of movement, muscle rigidity and poor balance.
- Can a welder get copies of their workplace exposure records?
- Many welders don't know this. Under OSHA's access rule, 29 CFR 1910.1020, an employer must, on request, give an employee access to the exposure records relevant to them. Those records include workplace air monitoring, biological monitoring results, and safety data sheets.
- Does Nebraska workers' comp cover a welder's occupational disease?
- Nebraska's comp law covers occupational disease, but it defines the term narrowly. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-151 limits it to a disease "due to causes and conditions which are characteristic of and peculiar to a particular trade, occupation, process, or employment," and it "excludes all ordinary diseases of life to which the general public is exposed."
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Frank Younes
Every page on this site is written by Frank Younes, a Nebraska trial attorney with a published record of verdicts and settlements, selection to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and a practice that covers every county in Nebraska and Iowa. No case is handed to an associate — the lawyer you read here is the lawyer who works your case.
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