The lead does not evaporate when you solder, the soldering iron is not
hot enough to evaporate lead. Lead does not enter through the skin, It
can enter through cuts or most likely through ingesting it.
The issue with toys is that kids put the toys in their mouths.
You risk contamination if you do not wash your hands after soldering and
before eating. Or you burn your finger while soldering and put it (your
finger) in your mouth.
It does not take many precautions to prevent lead poisoning.
Kip
On Sat, 2007-11-17 at 14:30 -0800, Pat Barthelow wrote:
> Does anyone know of actual Medical studies done on people in the electronics
> industry who handle lead bearing solder over a period of years? For some
> years, back in the olden days, I worked in both Q/A and production of a
> sensor manufacturer. Proibably hand soldered 300,000 or more through hole
> componnent-pcb connections. The Old fashioned way. Under a lamp, with a
> Panavise, Weller WTCPN, and a handful of thin guage Ersin Multi or Kester
> 60-40 solder, constanty broken off a nearby 1 lb spool. (Spools used to be
> around $10.... not any more! ) The solder was held and fed through my index
> finger and thumb, mostly, and, at the end of the day, you culd see darkened
> skin on thumb and forefinger, seemingly minute lead deposits right where the
> solder was held. It even tingled a bit, or felt different where the lead
> solder was fed through the fingers. I washed hands at the end of the day, or
> more often. Also, back then, we did not even use fans to divert the rosin
sm
> oke from our noses while at work. I wonder if any measureable lead could be
> found in ones bloodstream who did that kind of work. Also is there any lead
> compounds likely to be wafting up with the rosin smoke? Any medical
> research actually been done on techs from the oldend days?
>
>
> All the Best, 73,
> Pat Barthelow aa6eg@hotmail.com
> http://www.jamesburgdish.org
> Subscribe: http://bambi.net/jamesburg.html
> Jamesburg Earth Station Moon Bounce Team
>
> > Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:48:25 -0500
> > From: aa6e@ewing.homedns.org
> > To: towertalk@contesting.com
> > Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] DIN Connectors You Can't Solder To
> >
> > "Reduction of Hazardous Substances" (RoHS) is a European initiative
> > which requires manufacturers to use non-lead-bearing solder for
> > commercial electronics devices, among other practices. You have to
> > follow these rules if you want to sell in EU -- in practice, the world
> > electronics business is following suit.
> >
> > See
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_of_Hazardous_Substances_Directive
> >
> > The rules don't apply to hobbyists, but most of the stuff we will buy
> > will be RoHS compliant. In practice, this means that soldering is
> > trickier because you have to use higher temperature solders.
> >
> > On the other hand, we might all preserve our mental faculties a little
> > longer! (One of the symptoms of Pb poisoning is reduced IQ.)
> >
> > 73 Martin AA6E
> >
> > David Robbins K1TTT wrote:
> > > First, what is RoHS???
> > >
> > > Most likely they are plated with chrome. I would take some fine sandpaper
> > > and scratch the plating of the top of the pins, that at least gives a
> > > little
> > > area to tack onto. If the pins have a hollow on the back like most of
> > > them
> > > find a drill or jeweler's file that fits in there and scrape out the
> > > plating
> > > also. This also works for chrome plated pl-259's since most all of these
> > > types of things are just plated brass.
> > >
> > > David Robbins K1TTT
> > > e-mail: mailto:k1ttt@arrl.net
> > > web: http://www.k1ttt.net
> > > AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > TowerTalk@contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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--
Kipton Moravec KE5NGX
"Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
--Mark Twain
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