So, I just started working at a shop/plant that does electroplating and also has a electronically controlled water/waste treatment facility that takes alot of the various chemical baths that are used for electroplating and runs them through multiple processes to get fairly clean water (which they tell me they sell back to the city or something to that effect).

I actually just started working there today and pretty much the whole day chemical safety was stressed, stressed, and stresssedddd....which I totally understand. A few of these chemicals they use in plating and such and hydrochloric acid, caustic soda(which I know about), potassium cyanide, and various other chems.

My question is (and despite what they seems to stress) to the people with a wide array of chem knowledge....do I have much to worry about if I stay with this company long term? As in respiratory health effects?

I'm not too worried about on spill on myself do to the protective clothing and accidental ingestion...but I'm just worried about any respiratory effects that might be detrimental in the long run?

I would try to provide more info, but this was my first day at the job.

Thanks guys.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/eis5.pdf

The electro-plating industry is a recognised cause of occupational asthma, and, depending on which chemicals are used, also dermatitis, burns, subacute poisoning and sometimes lung cancer (ther latter particularly with inhaled hexavalent chromium compounds).

Thanks corpus. I couldn't seem to find any info. I actually just quit today unfortunately. But as I see it..the health risks are just too great in a place like that. Even after my first day there and the next morning my breathing felt labored in a very odd way. Something i'd never felt before.

Occupational exposures are heavily regulated. Depending on the company you are working for you will know whether they are providing enough safety for you. The first good sign is if they have a respiratory protection program, ask them if they do if they give you a glazed look or are kinda hesitant I would look for work elsewhere. Yes the standards are there but if the company isn't taking a proactive step to protect you then that says a lot. Big companies do have these in place and will continue to try and improve on it but that isn't to say that they are not exceeding the thresholds every now and then. Remeber too that even if you do have personal protective gear on you are still being exposed but at much lower conenctrations that have been proven to cause illness either acutely or in the log run. Unfortunately, many of the standards are written in blood meaning people either had to already get debilitated or die before they were recognized, unless animal exposure trials have been conducted before much harm hasn't been done which usually isn't the case.