What are the hazards of cutting fluid to human body

When it comes to cutting fluid, many people don’t know what it is. In fact, cutting fluid is an industrial liquid used in the metal processing process to cool and lubricate the tool when cutting metal. Generally speaking, cutting fluid is composed of lubricants, cleaning agents, bactericides, etc. Normal cutting fluid is weakly alkaline, phosphorus-free and environmentally friendly. Now let’s talk about the hazards of cutting fluid to the human body.

Cutting fluids can generally be divided into two categories:

A water-soluble cutting fluid diluted with water for the main purpose of cooling;

Oil-soluble cutting fluid that is mainly used for lubrication and does not need to be diluted with water.

Water-soluble cutting fluid is diluted with a large amount of water before use. It does not produce smoke or cause the risk of fire. Degreasing and cleaning after processing is relatively simple. The disadvantage is that the machine tools and workpieces are prone to rust.

Oil-soluble cutting fluid has good lubrication and rust prevention effects, but it will produce serious oil mist during high-speed cutting, which will worsen environmental hygiene. In order to adapt to various lubrication requirements and improve the performance of cutting fluid, various additives are often added to the cutting fluid.

Harm of cutting fluid to human health

The main reason is that its additives are toxic. For example, nitrites, chromates, and chlorine compounds are all toxic substances, and nitrites and alcohol amines easily react to form carcinogenic nitrosamines; phenols used as fungicides are also very toxic.

1. Metal cutting fluid comes into direct contact with the operator's skin:

80% of occupational diseases caused by cutting fluids are caused in this way. There are differences in the harm of water-soluble cutting fluid and oil-soluble cutting fluid to the skin. It is generally believed that oil-soluble cutting fluids are prone to cause oil acne, folliculitis, keratosis and skin cancer. Among them, oil acne is the most common, which is caused by the skin coming into contact with oil, which blocks the skin pores, leading to inflammation and the formation of pus blisters. When metal debris, grinding wheel particles, oxide particles and rust particles come into contact with the skin and block the skin pores, they cause rashes and induce folliculitis. Skin cancer and keratosis are mainly caused by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH); water-soluble cutting fluids can easily cause irritant dermatitis and allergic dermatitis. Irritant contact dermatitis is an inflammatory reaction caused by local toxic effects on epidermal cells. Allergic dermatitis is an inflammatory reaction caused by antigen stimulation in the skin and is an important cause of eczema in workers handling cutting fluids.

2. Operators ingest the smoke from cutting fluid through the respiratory tract:

The oil mist formed by oil-soluble cutting fluid and the micro-droplets formed by the vaporization of water-soluble cutting fluid can irritate the respiratory mucosa and cause inflammation. The pungent smell of smoke and the stench produced by the corruption of cutting fluid can also cause harm to the respiratory tract.