Occupational Health & Safety CAW Canadian Auto Workers Union

In the summer of 1992 a major study of General Motors workers in the United

States showed excess levels of a number of different kinds of cancers. This

GM / UAW study of 46,000 Michigan workers' health effects is disturbing.

* Read the MSDSs (Material Safety Data Sheets) so that you will know the

ingredients of metalworking fluids.  You need to know about the additives 

as well as the fluid itself.  These additives are used to prevent corrosion and

bacteria build up.  When bacteria grow in metalworking fluids, the fluids go

bad and smell awful.  Fungi also grows in metalworking fluids.

Both fungi and bacteria can cause lung disease and cancer.

Find out if the additives are nitrites or ethanolamine-type chemicals.

These additives produce nitrosamines which cause cancer. 

Anytime you see the words "corrosion inhibitor" or know that metal has been

treated or coated to prevent rust, be suspicious.  Even though nitrites or

ethanolamines may not be listed as an additive, they may be found in the

corrosion inhibitor.  Insist that a less harmful additive be substituted.

Find out if any substance that may be used to coat or treat the metal as a rust

inhibitor contains nitrites.  If the metalworking fluid you use contains

 ethanolamine and there is a coating of a nitrite containing corrosion inhibitor

on the metal you are working on, they will combine to form nitrosamines.

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