potential health hazard from electronics

[ver chan]

good day! since we are dealing with electronics, did you ever think about potential health hazard from exposure to soldering lead, soldering fumes, and other risk arising from electronic components and materials ?

 

[Minder]

Read RoHS qualified products!!
M.

 

[hevans1944]

good day! since we are dealing with electronics, did you ever think about potential health hazard from exposure to soldering lead, soldering fumes, and other risk arising from electronic components and materials ?

Sure, I started playing around with molten lead and solder about sixty-something years ago while living with my grandparents. Grandfather had a gasoline blow-torch that he used to melt lead to cast fishing lures in a home-made aluminum cavity mold. After the cast lures cooled, he tied bits of feathers, fur, and whatnot on the head of the lure to enclose and hide the hook. I stood around to "help" him and maybe learn some stuff 'bout 'lectricity since Grandfather was a retired coal mine electrician from West Virginia. Later I acquired my own soldering tools and tinkered away on old radios and television sets, salvaging components for small projects. All part of a young boys education. As for "any potential health hazard from exposure to soldering lead, soldering fumes, and other risk arising from electronic components and materials"... Forget about it! I have received more hazardous exposure from the air I breathe and the cigarettes I used to smoke than from anything I ever encountered in electronics. And that includes PCBs found in some utility power transformers. Those leaked from transformers at an abandoned plant here in Dayton and found their way into Wolf Creek and thence into the local fish population. Fortunately by that time I was smart enough not to go swimming in Wolf Creek (which ran near a house my parents rented) or try to catch and eat any fish from it. Anyway, I don't worry about a health risk working with electronics. I think RoHS products, lead-free solder especially, are a liberal/socialist/fascist plot to rule the world. I will have nothing to do with it.

In the 1950s, my brother and our male cousins used to rub mercury onto silver coins (USA used to mint coins with real silver) to make them "shiny". I am a little more respectful of mercury today, but it is really hard to get poisoned by it from simple skin contact. That's not so much true with mercury compounds, especially organic mercury compounds, that are easily absorbed through the skin and lead to a painful death. I stay away from that kind of stuff. And I am careful about disposing defunct mercury vapor rectifiers, thyratrons, mercury switches and batteries.

If you are just starting out in electronics, use RoHS lead-free solder, a face-mask with a breathing filter approved for volatile organic compounds, and wear Nitrile gloves at all times. Wash your hands carefully and throughly before consuming any food. Don't smoke. Live long and prosper. And stay out of the high voltage.

Hop

 

[Colin Mitchell]

All my staff are totally senile and sterile after breathing lead fumes all day.
I provide free dementia accommodation for all those under 35.

 

[BGB]

I have wondered some about this some.

I have recently had issues with occasional slight eye twitch, and have been left to wonder if it is a potential adverse effect of soldering (fumes or similar, like getting fumes and smoke in the face). it has been a periodic annoyance for the past some-odd days, but seems to be slowly going away.

also have noticed after lots of soldering (such as when making a board), sometimes start getting a headache.
note that I try to avoid breathing the smoke, but it is also possible it could be an effect of asphyxiation or similar from only breathing occasionally.

(had in the time made several circuit boards and improvised connectors, and basically have most of the electronics done now for a CNC machine I have been building).

or something, dunno...

 

[ver chan]

thanks to all respondents, im glad to read your thoughts

 

[shrtrnd]

Most companies in the U.S. have pretty strict compliance procedures pertaining to safety/health hazards of this.
Probably why most manufacturers moved out of the U.S. to less restrictive countries.
Apparently it's OK to let some others face the risks, while the rest of the world reaps the benefits of the resulting products.