A study was made of workplace conditions in a hot dip galvanizing plant in the Netherlands. An extended monitoring programme was carried out for hydrochloric acid and zinc fumes. For hydrochloric acid a new sampling method was developed with a sampling time of 5 min. By combining this stationary method with the observed activity pattern of the picklers personal exposures were calculated. The picklers were estimated to work 27% of their time in concentrations above the MAC-C value. About 70% of the zinc fumes was present in the form of zinc chloride; most earlier investigators ascribed the fumes to zinc oxide. For two functions there was a more than 5% probability of exceeding the MAC-TWA value of zinc chloride. Dental erosion of the teeth of the workers was assessed to study possible damage by exposure to hydrochloric acid. Dental erosion of the incisor teeth was observed in 90% of the workers. Owing to lack of a suitable control group, causality of the work circumstances could not be fully assessed.