Inhaling Solder fumes? lead

[bakerlite]

So of course i always try to avoid inhaling the fumes when soldering but every now and then i cop a lung full.

While i am certain It is wholey unhealthy it is not repulsive.

At the mooment i am using up a  roll of  tin/lead/silver/ copper, Quadeutectic .032 solder, activated rosin core flux that i got a while back,

It contains lead.

Just how much is bad for you? Or would you definately be using a lead free alternative?

i like this stuff for sure, but I'm sure a different more healthier brand wouldnt hurt.

Its not like i am soldering 24/7 but would be curious to know just how bad it really is!

[stingray_65]

IIRC

You're not breathing in the lead fumes. takes a whole lot more than just 50-800 deg F to make lead fume.

But those sweet smelling rosins do smoke and fume and are very bad for you.

Again IIRC the studys about this danger are for electronic industry workers who are exposed 5 days a week 8hrs a day year after year.

To a hobbiest it is good to be aware, and not to solder in a small enclosed room.

Ray

[G._Hoffman]

I have a 12V computer fan that is just about the exact size as the charcoal filters that Weller sells for their little desk top fume extractor, so I just zip tied one of the filters to the fan, and hooked up a used wall wart to the fan.  Make sure you set it up to suck.  I don't always remember to use it, but it is awfully nice to have when I do.  If you wanted to be really ambitious, you could mount it to an old architects lamp arm.  Because the fan isn't all that powerful, it needs to be pretty close to what your soldering, but it works out pretty well.


Gabriel

[sluckey]

Hey man!    I...   I...   I... like to smell cann rosin burning.

[LooseChange]

Ever wonder why there are so many wacky people on this forum? We all inhale.

[jjasilli]

Make sure you set it up to suck.  I'm sure that won't be a problem for me!   

[PRR]

The lead fumes from hobbyist soldering are negligible. To get in real trouble, melt 500 pounds of lead and stand over it all day. Dip-soldering is all hooded and automated.

Don't hold the solder in your teeth.

Wash-up before eating.

Rosin is generally considered safe. It is safer than standing around a bonfire. Some people develop an allergy, sometimes so severe they must quit.

Fan is nice.

Unless you get itchy-fingers or a wheeze, the most likely danger is solder-splash in the eye. Can be startling, can be very serious (the eyeball does not heal well). Wear eye protection.

[stingray_65]

Ok,

I been thinking about this alot lately, and 90% of what I feel is authoritative information is geared towards daily exposure for work.

Articles written by solder fume extractor manufacturers read like a horror story and I pretty much weeded them out as biased.

I did find this article that seemed to make sense. It is written by Gary Palamara for "Radio World Magazine .

A good, informative read if you ask me.

Of note is the solder fume extractor he made that sounds like Gabriel's description.

I guess you hit a nerve when you posted, I'm 45 for a few more months and really feeling it, been changing my diet, loosing weight, cut back on my smoking (hope to get the nerve to quit real soon), changing my lifestyle habits, exercising, yadda yadda yadda.

I think I may have to make one of those suckers, a real suped up one LOL, Might even open a window in the shop when I spray paint it  

Ray



http://www.garypalamara.com/Articles_Solder_Smoke.htm

[PRR]

> cut back on my smoking

You know that is FAR worse than hobby soldering.

Folks older than you grew up with lead. Nevermind soldered copper pipes (very thin lead-edge exposed to the water); I found all-lead pipes in my last house. The toilet dump-pipe was of course not a problem, except I did touch it to re-seal it (and learn the true meaning of "lead-pipe cinch"). But there was also a lead water MAIN, abandoned, but clearly used for many years.

Lead paint is the best stuff for trim. Painters would buy the raw stuff and pound it into linseed oils for paint, then when it flaked off toddlers would eat the sweet flakes.

Oh, yeah, lead soldiers and charm-bracelets. Toy cars. Fishing weights. Flashing. Downspouts. Sash weights. But you really don't get much exposure from weathered lead through skin.

And all the ethyl tailpipe fumes. And the toxicity of tetraethyl lead was known in the 1920s, when they started putting it in gasoline. There seems to be a gradual process: early ethyl was maybe 0.2 proof and Esso could find reputable doctors to agree that's not much (in a civilization largely based on lead). Over the decades that crept past 1.0 proof. I wonder how much lead was in Sunoco 104? And there was 120/140 Octane stuff for WWII fighter planes... that's gotta be over 4.0 proof, though not many people hung around it.

Did all that lead hurt our memories? I forget. But I suspect many of us fried far more brain cells with bad drugs (booze is popular, street LSD could be nasty) than all the lead we handled, even inhaled.


Rosin is pine sap. Same as the snot on your car when you park under an old pine tree. Gash a pine tree, it bleeds, distill the sap, you get turpentine and pine-tar, both essential for old-skool wood ship building. In between the liquid and the tar, you get rosin.

Been boiling pine sap for hundreds of years. Turpentine is still sold everywhere. People used to drink it as a remedy. It's probably no good for you, but seems to do no harm.

The toxicity of rosin has never really been studied, _because_ it has been so widely used for so many centuries with so little problem.

There IS a common allergy to rosin smoke. You'll know, it comes on quick. Workers who had to quit the soldering occupation seem to recover soon after they stop inhaling it every day.

[G._Hoffman]

The reason I made mine is that I found myself getting headaches when I was soldering.  It seems to have helped.  But I don't know that it was, strictly speaking, required, but I do like it.


Gabriel

[kagliostro]

the most likely danger is solder-splash in the eye

Some years ago I was desoldering some thin hard core wires from a relay

when I use my iron I don't use eye protection glasses because as to see I MUST use glasses

Well the thin wire acted as a spring, the drop of pond made a good jump and fell right in the center of the cornea of my left eye

I can assure you that it was not a pleasant experience, fortunately, the drop of pond was very small and after a few weeks the eye was almost back affixed

inside of the eyelid  I still have a scar that if pushed give me a little discomfort

Kagliostro

[bakerlite]

The reason I made mine is that I found myself getting headaches when I was soldering. 

That actually prompted me posting this thread.
Due to illness/medication I regularly suffer from migraines
But I have noticed every night I soldered I was guaranteed a headache so I will definitely rig up a fan unit of some sort.

thanks all

[G._Hoffman]

The reason I made mine is that I found myself getting headaches when I was soldering. 

That actually prompted me posting this thread.
Due to illness/medication I regularly suffer from migraines
But I have noticed every night I soldered I was guaranteed a headache so I will definitely rig up a fan unit of some sort.

thanks all

I should say, I'm not 100% convinced the filter is really required.  I'm pretty sure that just having the fan suck the fumes away from my face would do the trick, but using the filter does keep them out of the HVAC, which can't be a bad thing.  I don't know if it's a good thing, of course.


Gabriel

[PRR]

> I don't use eye protection glasses because as to see I MUST use glasses

That "should" be OK most of the time. The small amounts of solder in an electronics joint won't hurt glass or plastic eyeglasses. I've peeled lots of solder-splash off my glasses, including polycarbonate lenses.

You should include some side- and top-protection. Especially with now-style small lenses (I still wear big aviator-style from 1968). There's a $2 plastic google that fits over eyeglasses in most hardware stores. Yes, it uncomfortable and sweaty and sometimes not very clear. Woodworkers use a $20 full-face shield.

[G._Hoffman]

Woodworkers use a $20 full-face shield.

   



Gabriel  (Who works with half a dozen other professional woodworkers.  We do have a full face shield.)

[Willabe]

I like those full-face shields. They still can fog up a little, but a lot less than googles.

I'm drilling out a chassis right now and am using one. Also much easier to lift up to see when not needes, instead of moving the googles. Plus they don't hurt your face.


         Brad        

[PRR]

 

Well, maybe it is only for TV shows or when OSHA is inspecting.


SAS Safety 5140 Clear Full-Face Shield - List Price: $17.35 - Price: $14.06 

http://www.amazon.com/SAS-Safety-5140-Full-Face-Shield/dp/B000M603GI

[HoodratShinobi88]

Inhale exhale , just got an oz in the mail.  Ive done my fair share but actually quit like two weeks ago.
As for the solder I have noticed a good nosefull makes me quite lightheaded, wouldn't call it a headache tho.

[G._Hoffman]

 

Well, maybe it is only for TV shows or when OSHA is inspecting.


SAS Safety 5140 Clear Full-Face Shield - List Price: $17.35 - Price: $14.06 

http://www.amazon.com/SAS-Safety-5140-Full-Face-Shield/dp/B000M603GI

Yeah that's the one we have.  There are actually just a few things we do use it for, but for most of the things we do they get in the way, if they aren't down right dangerous.  Truthfully, the most important thing is to use your mind, and to understand the way a tool might fail.  Some tools self feed, so you don't want your hand anywhere it might get pulled in and cut off.  Other tools will try to kick back, and then you need to make sure you are not standing in the path of whatever will be shooting back at you.  Then there are routers, which can do both, depending on how you are using them.  And of course, the scariest tool, the shaper, which is like a router on steroids.  With either of those, you mostly just want to make sure that, if it grabs, it doesn't pull your hands into the bit by holding the piece so your hand will only be pushed away from the bit, not into the bit.


Gabriel