What are zinc chills and metal fume fever?
                                
                                
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                                    5 min read                                
                            
                                Affecting hundreds of industrial workers in the U.S. annually, zinc chills, or metal fume fever, is a flu-like illness caused by inhaling metallic oxide fumes. The condition is most famously associated with welders working on galvanized steel, where heating the zinc coating creates toxic zinc oxide fumes.