Beyond following the regulations mandated by OSHA and your state, safety in welding is largely based on understanding hazards and awareness of your surroundings. Welding hazards can be roughly broken into seven risk categories:
Arc welding is based on the creation of an electrical circuit, and a “break” in the electrical circuit, where the electricity is forced to travel through a gas (that becomes ionized in this process). The resistance in gas (think about the difficulty electricity has traveling through air) creates an “arc.” An arc is comprised of electrical energy lost as heat and light, so electrical hazards may be the most intuitively recognizable risk in arc welding. Common electrical hazards include: