Dangers of Desoldering

[Anson]

I found myself regreasing my desoldering pump today and got fine solder particles all over my hands. This is the third time I've done this but it was the first I actually thought about the lead. I know there is minimal risk in soldering the flux tends to be worse than the lead, but in this case I sorta feel I should have been a bit more careful. How dangerous is it and how much lead does it take to really do anything? I already have Lyme disease  I don't need lead poisoning too.

[darko31]

I work all the time with the desoldering pump, and I understand what particles are you referring to. Dave once mentioned this in his videos, just don't eat after soldering without washing you hands, don't touch open wounds, etc. Otherwise its fine.

[Anson]

I do a ton of desoldering right now, I am trying to build up my parts supply. Although I keep getting mostly parts I doubt I will really ever use, along with parts that are now obsolete and I have no easy way to test or no way to test at all because of lack of proper equipment. i will likely never have a bench lcr bridge or logic testers or the many other useful yet extremely over priced testing equipment. I have a large box of pc boards with tons of through hole parts I am desoldering daily.

[SeanB]

MS5508 is pretty cheap to get from Frankie, might be worth looking the thread up and contacting Frankie ( Iloveelectronics) and asking him.

[G7PSK]

If any body was going to die from lead poisoning it would be people who did a lot of shooting particularly those in an indoor range. When I was a range officer at one time at the local R&P club I had my blood tested and the lead content was lower than the average person who was not a shooter, at that time the biggest source of ingested lead was exhaust fumes and as I live in a rural area my exposure to exhaust fume is lower than that of a town dweller. I was not only in the range a lot I was also doing my own reloading and soldering. i think that the only way to suffer from lead poisoning from soldering is to eat the stuff so as the previous post said wash your hands after handling solder especially before eating and don,t eat while soldering. i do expect that much if any lead will get into the body through the skin  all the cases of problems from lead I have read about has been cases such as the one in the 1800's where a load of people fell ill due to apples being chopped up in a lead lined trough to make cider or from lead pipes in a soft water area in hard water areas the pipes get lined with limescale which limits the exposure. so fear not a bit of soldering will not harm you, unless you drop molten solder into your crutch, then you will be dancing the hornpipe.

[KJDS]

The indoor range I used to use was tested as part of a postgraduate project on lead pollution and there was negligible contamination.

Once upon a time lead was standard for water pipes. It's still used a lot on roofs too and I've never known a real problem from that.

[nanofrog]

As others have said, just wash your hands before eating or drinking, and you've nothing to worry about. 

Oh, and toss the lead particulate in a container that's labeled for lead and recycle it when full (I would think any place that takes lead-acid battery cores would be licensed to take it).

[Anson]

unless you drop molten solder into your crutch, then you will be dancing the hornpipe.

Been there. 

[c4757p]

unless you drop molten solder into your crutch, then you will be dancing the hornpipe.

Been there. 

Hmm... I usually wear pants when soldering! To each his own, I guess.

[gxti]

Oh, and toss the lead particulate in a container that's labeled for lead and recycle it when full (I would think any place that takes lead-acid battery cores would be licensed to take it).

Good idea. For fun I took all the waste solder from my soldering iron holder, made a little boat out of tinfoil and melted it all down in the toaster oven. Now I have a brick of 63/37.

[nanofrog]

Good idea. For fun I took all the waste solder from my soldering iron holder, made a little boat out of tinfoil and melted it all down in the toaster oven. Now I have a brick of 63/37.

Sounds perfect for use in a solder pot.   

[ptricks]

Been using lead solder daily for 20+ years,  blood levels are lower than normal.
Like others said, don't suck on the stuff and you will be fine !

[cwalex]

Been using lead solder daily for 20+ years,  blood levels are lower than normal.
Like others said, don't suck on the stuff and you will be fine !

When I was a teenager I would use my mouth to hold the solder kind of like a third hand when I was doing fiddly stuff. Not a good idea but I was invincible back then like most teenagers feel they are. Luckily it had no lasting damage, I had my blood tested recently (for other reasons) and I asked him to do a test for lead. levels are fine.

[LapTop006]

When I was a teenager I would use my mouth to hold the solder kind of like a third hand when I was doing fiddly stuff. Not a good idea but I was invincible back then like most teenagers feel they are. Luckily it had no lasting damage, I had my blood tested recently (for other reasons) and I asked him to do a test for lead. levels are fine.

I still do this occasionally, although I'm trying not to. A good PCB vise would probably help.

[KJDS]

When I was a teenager I would use my mouth to hold the solder kind of like a third hand when I was doing fiddly stuff. Not a good idea but I was invincible back then like most teenagers feel they are. Luckily it had no lasting damage, I had my blood tested recently (for other reasons) and I asked him to do a test for lead. levels are fine.

I still do this occasionally, although I'm trying not to. A good PCB vise would probably help.

I have plenty of vices that are far more damaging than solder

[SeanB]

I often hold the solder in mouth ( lacking a prehensile tail or prehensile feet) but it is always in a small tube that originally contained either antacid pills or fizzy vitamin pills.

[peter.mitchell]

Bruce (RCMR) taught me a good trick, with thumb and index finger, hole when you are soldering, and with your middleand 4th finger hold the solder (both facing into the palm of your hand) with the other hand hold the iron. With a bit of practice it's like having 3 hands.