Is Galvanized Steel Poisonous?

A. Hi. Scrubbing with an abrasive pad is unlikely to release any metal shards, and it's even less likely that you could inhale them.

Regards,

A. Hi Michael. Some people think it's not good practice to make such parts from galvanized steel. But while I have no medical qualifications, I think smoke & dust is 1000 times more likely to be the cause of his puffy eyes than zinc fumes.

Regards,

Hi Alex. You should never put nails in your mouth for a number of good reasons, but you don't get zinc poisoning even from eating a couple of Cold-Eze tablets, so you certainly won't get it from having one zinc coated nail in your mouth for a moment. Zinc is an essential micro-nutrient, not a poison.

Regards,

A. Companies such as Porsche had to develop procedures for the safe welding of galvanized car chassis in the 70s and 80s due to well documented and accepted human health risks associated with the toxic fumes produced when welding galvanized metals. Only then could Porsche and others offer corrosion warranties.

A. Metal fumes produced from welding are well understood. Note that a fume is a particle. The phrase gasoline fume is incorrect as that is a vapor. So, you can be exposed to zinc fume when welding on galvanized steel as well as iron, and any other component of the steel alloy (usually mild steel). Condensation of the metal vapor generated at the arc high temperature zone generates fume (very small particulate ([<1 micron]) Any particulate can be harmful if inhaled. Zinc is of low toxicity when compared to lead, cadmium, chromium, beryllium. Long term overexposure, via inhalation, to inhaled iron particulate, like fume, can lead to siderosis. Similar to silicosis.

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January 2018

Thanks for the interesting and helpful reply, Kerry! But I don't think you'll be successful in restricting the definition of "fume" to particulates because most dictionaries don't agree. They seem to say "vapors, gasses, smoke, or dusts" with the clarification that, while some dusts constitute fumes, other dusts are heavy and settle out rather than remaining airborne.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Hi Kevin,

I wouldn't do it, because zinc in the galvanized sheet will melt and vaporize. Use a steel sheet or mesh instead, it will corrode but it will be safe for you :)

Best regards,

A. I'd always heat any metal without food the first time no matter whether it was plain, painted, or galvanized; after that I wouldn't worry about galvanized mesh with no food contact for a second myself. The ash collecting trays in the wood burning stoves I have seen have been galvanized metal.

Opinions is all you can get; on B-B-Q forums you'll hear lots of people saying it's as bad as lead or mercury, but I've never heard of anyone getting sick from an application like this, and google scholar doesn't seem to indicate any problem although it does include the usual warnings against cooking on very old cadmium plated refrigerator shelving. Zinc is an essential micronutrient, not a poison.

Regards,

A. Hi Rhonda. Although it is possible that something he did at work is the cause of his illness, please recognize that the flu is rampant in 49 states, and at the worst level it's been in many years. I think he should see a doctor to try to determine what is going on.

We appreciate your concern and interest, but to try to get a clear picture, from a mother who has probably never even been in the factory in question, as to exactly what happened, and the probability of whether or not his illness is the result of exposure to zinc fumes, just isn't possible. In general, zinc fumes are a problem only to welders who heat the metal to thousands of degrees and then inhale the clouds of vaporized zinc oxide. "Filing and cleaning" doesn't sound like it would expose a person to zinc fumes, but we don't know exactly what filing and cleaning involves, or what kind of fumes were coming off the metal and after which operation while it was sleeting. Best of luck for a speedy return to health.

Regards,

A. Hi Ray. I personally think it's not a real issue, and if you're talking about your own family's grill I'll stick with that opinion. But perceptions matter -- look at all the people who have posted here and on similar threads who just might call the police or the health department if they saw galvanized sheet metal on a food service grill. If you're talking about a business, do yourself a favor and use plain steel or stainless steel :-)

Regards,

A. Hi Annie. That's one that will require someone with veterinary training or who has read a detailed study because: on the one hand galvanized watering troughs and roofs & gutters have been used for water on farms and in rural area for many decades, and birds surely drink from them ... but on the other hand, birds aren't people, and the fact that a small amount of zinc is good for people doesn't mean it's good for birds.

Regards,

  Hi Bill. This is one of a dozen threads on the same subject, each with a hundred entries, going on for over two decades now. People want assurance that there isn't ANY possible danger, but that whole concept doesn't work for anything at all :-)

For the umpteenth time: zinc is not a toxin, it is a required micronutrient, and larger doses are deliberately taken to shorten the length of colds.

Some zinc welders sometimes get "metal fume fever" from inhaling clouds of white zinc oxide when they continually make the metal white hot and keep their face right in the middle of it, which constitutes a huge overdose hundreds if not tens of thousands of times as high as anyone could ever get from a fire ring. And even then, many people (but not all) feel there are no long term effects even from repeatedly suffering metal fume fever.

How many angels?

Hypotheticals about employing bellows to make fire rings glow red hot strike me like asking how many angels can dance on the shoulders of the angels who are dancing on the head of the pin :-)

Regards,

A. Hi. I did my bar with a polycarbonate roof and loved it. It looks like delicate stuff that will easily crack or break but it absolutely isn't. I think you'll be happiest with that.

Regards,

A. Hi Tasha. Sorry I don't know exactly what you mean by 'the wood burner' or exactly what you mean about it having a crack in it. But if this is indoors, a cracked 'wood burner' is both a serious fire danger and a serious carbon monoxide danger. Galvanized nails sound like the absolute least of your worries :-)

Regards,

A. Hi Donald. Sorry for this hardship. Most of our readers are metal finishers rather than people who have medical training, and no one with medical training would attempt a diagnosis from such a verbal description. All I can suggest is that you see or continue to see a doctor who is familiar with your symptoms.

Part of the problem with our society's emphasis on chemical exposures to heavy metals is that we may focus on the wrong things. Zinc is an essential micronutrient, so exposure to a small amount while sawing galvanized metal seems to be a nothing burger ... whereas benzene is a serious poison, and tiny metal shards in your eyes is an emergency. You have done a service by reminding others to always wear appropriate safety glasses or goggles in such situations; and sorry that I can't help.

Regards,

A. Hi Edward. To my limited knowledge researchers have not studied this, so all you get is personal opinions. I think concern about heating zinc coated surfaces in the open air at lower than welding temperatures is wildly overblown; I'd run the grill on high for 7 minutes with the cover open then not worry about it.

Regards,

A. Former Force Account Work Coordinator/Supervisory Engineering Technician for Bureau of Reclamation. Trained in Power Shop and Welding.
All my work with galvanized welding called for full ventilation of fumes with air moved away from the welder; the basic reason being zinc metal inhalation into the lungs with concern for long term lung damage. Reducing this possibility called for prior removal of the galvanized coating in the weld area as well for a better weld.
The jury is still out on how much damage but with PM2.5 increasing health impacts, why take an unnecessary risk?
https://particleandfibretoxicology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12989-018-0246-4

A. Hi. Don't.

Regards,

A. Hi Sarai. You paid your elected politicians and your bureaucrats, and re-elected them after they chose this problem to focus on. Home Depot and everyone else up and down the line is now burdened with the costs of propagating the proposition, so you may as well heed it. The warning presumably refers to touching it, not burying it. So wear gloves when handling -- hardware cloth is nasty pricky stuff anyway.

Regards,

A. Hi Beverly. There is no such thing as galvanized aluminum. If you want to worry about your shutters being poisonous you'll have to first find out what they're actually made of. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Dave. Stainless obviously would have been more robust in the long term, but there is no measurable danger from galvanized (actually they sound like electroplated zinc) washers in a dishwasher. This has been said a thousand times on this site, but zinc is not a toxin, it's an essential micronutrient. Maybe you've taken Cold-Eze [affil link to info/product on Amazon] or Zicam [affil link to info/product on Amazon] zinc supplements or slathered on a zinc oxide sunblock?

Like with aspirin or anything else, the concern with zinc is about overdoses, which can happen to welders and others who heat zinc to its vaporization temperature (significantly higher than its melting temperature) and then inhale clouds of zinc fumes.

Luck & Regards,

A. Hi Kathy. There are no 'toxins' in a galvanized water container or jug; zinc is an essential micronutrient, not a toxin. It is probably somewhat possible to get an overdose (more than your body is happy with) from an acidic juice dissolving too much zinc into the drink. But I'd say not very likely since people take Cold-Eze and Zicam zinc supplements all the time.

Food poisoning, though, is an everyday occurrence in such situations. Talking about something that happened "many years ago" with no evidence either way, I'd give 10:1 odds, maybe 50:1 odds that it was food poisoning rather than a zinc overdose. Either way, nothing to worry about now :-)

Luck & Regards,

A. Hi Paul. Realistically, in that specific situation, probably not. But zinc coated items should not be used for food service; and items not intended for food service, like chicken wire, should not be used for food service. So you have two strikes against you :-)

But stainless steel wire mesh is available, and I'd probably take a chance with it.

Luck & Regards,

A. Hi William. Sorry for your hardship. Zinc is an essential micronutrient, not a toxin, so the zinc per se was probably not an issue. And you have not mentioned whether it was your toes which were cut or not.

But possibilities like tetanus and infection are for discussion with your doctor, not metal finishers. And if you feel that someone might bear financial responsibility for your injuries, that is something to talk to a personal injury lawyer about. Good luck.

Regards,