An arc welder in the datacenter: what could possibly go wrong?

oxy acetylene gas weldingisnot so bad for radiated energy, but you should protect yours eyes bare minimum.

if you are doing arc welding, mig or tig, cover up as much skin as possible and try to use some sort of barrier to occlude UV and highfrequency EM flux.

a long career doesnt have to end with problems.

It doesn’t solve all problems (like if there’s too much other stuff and not enough oxygen), but it handles almost any airborne harms that you’d expose yourself in a non-insane DIY situation.

2) it would be exceptionally difficult to hurt or even kill your self this way. More common is something like zinc poisoning (rarely fatal, easily miserable) from welding on galvanized steel, or getting uv or spatter burns, or shocking yourself (rarely fatal, often amusing!). Some things like tanks need special training. I’ve been welding for decades and have literally never heard of anyone getting chromium poisoning.

3) you’re more likely to accidentally set yourself or something else on fire (I’ve only done it once, keep a spray bottle of water around and you’ll usually be fine)

Personally I figured the article was talking about generated EMF crashing some important computer systems. But it was only talking about tripping fire alarms, which someone stupidly thought didn’t need to be disabled while literally melting metal indoors with a high powered electric arc.

Welding can be dangerous if you have no experience with industrial processes (aka have no idea what dangerous looks like in context), but it’s not a death wish. The only people I’ve heard having real issues were folks doing lots of welding in tight enclosed spaces without proper PPE, or welding on improperly purged fuel tanks.

I think we've just uncovered a metaphorical truth.