Employee health and safety in the workplace is a paramount issue for employers, and is regulated by the government. Employers are required to provide a safe working environment for their employees and visitors. In manufacturing environments where the risk of accidents and injury is high, it's even more important that employers ensure they are meeting safety requirements in their facilities.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health was asked to conduct an evaluation of the amount of optical radiation hazard coming from a plasma arc cutting system in a steel building materials manufacturing plant. High intensity light in the ultraviolet, visible and infrared spectrum can cause serious injury to the unprotected eye. The company was cited for employees not wearing the correct shade during PAC cutting. Additionally they evaluated the exposure to employees working nearby.
In order to test the hazard and make recommendations to the company, NIOSH used the ILT1700 Research Radiometer with our SED033, SED240 and SED623 filters for measuring UV radiation and IR Hazard covering the spectrum of 180 nm to 2100 nm, with readouts in W/m2 and cd/m2.
The full NIOSH report, findings and recommendations can be found here.