Life expectancy vs Lead exposure?

[bjdhjy888]

Hi,

    I often do hands-on experiments with lead containing PCB, solder paste and soldering lead containing solder. I wash my hands after each experiement. I use a fan with a filter to rid the soldering smoke out of my room and an air quality monitor to display real time air quality data.

    Still, I'm concerned about my health in the long run. Will lead harm my body in the long run? Will I get any chances of developing any heavy metal poisioning problems?

    Or, it's totally safe to work with lead solder, lead solder paste and PCB???

 

[bsfeechannel]

Ask how many on this forum died because of the use of leaded solder.

[Gyro]

You are as safe as it's possible to be in this world. 

Washing your hands, as you do, is the best precaution against lead ingestion by transferring it to food etc.  Normal soldering temperatures are far too low to cause any lead vapour to form.

Your biggest health risk is actually from the flux fumes which can vary from being a respiratory irritant, to triggering asthma attacks if a sufferer, to long term respiratory issues. Stay out of the fumes by using air movement / filtering / extraction and again, you'll be fine.

Ironically, the flux used in lead-free solders is a lot more 'nasty'. It's best to avoid those.

[radiolistener]

Some times ago people used mercury as medicament from different diseases. Also radioactive elements was used for better health

Lead is nothing in comparison with that 

[Old Printer]

As my name implies, I grew  up in an old fashioned print shop. So did my father, uncle and grandfather and assorted cousins. Up until the late 80's we ran hot metal type, Linotype, lead type. We handled lead constantly, cut it with saws, melted it down and recast it time and time again. The previous generations all lived healthy lives and died in their mid to late 80's of natural causes. I am not saying lead is nice stuff, particularly in young children, but based on my experience it is a bit over blown. Trades people know a lot of other trades people, and I know a lot of old printers who spent their lives around lead without health problems.

[Audioguru again]

I have always used a Weller temperature controlled soldering iron. It melts the rosin in solder making no smoke. Some people with poor health might have used a cheapo soldering iron that has no temperature control so it gets way too hot and incinerates the rosin in solder making nasty smoke.

[gildasd]

I´d be far more worried about lead potable water pipes than solder fumes/handling lead using our brains.

[KaneTW]

Don't ingest lead salts or particles and you'll be fine.

[Gyro]

Some times ago people used mercury as medicament from different diseases. Also radioactive elements was used for better health

Lead is nothing in comparison with that 

Lucky you didn't work in Stockport (Cheshire), aka, the hat capital of the UK. In previous centuries, they used Mercury Nitrate to improve the felting process of camel hair. This lead to the 'Mad Hatter' in Alice in Wonderland and the term 'mad as a Hatter'.

Sadly, it was so much more dangerous but less smelly than the previous process using Urine!

[Gyro]

I´d be far more worried about lead potable water pipes than solder fumes/handling lead using our brains.

Yes, there are still an awful lot of Lead supply pipes in use in domestic water feeds (the length between the street main and the house stop-tap) in older houses. Hard water areas are reasonably ok because the inside of the pipe builds up a protective layer of limescale, but in soft water areas this does not happen and quite a lot of lead can leach into the water while it is stationary over night. It's important to run the tap before drinking (assuming showers and other usage haven't already flushed it through).

[soldar]

Ask how many on this forum died because of the use of leaded solder.

I died once. Then I got better.

I have been handling lead pipes, solder, etc since long before there was any conscience that lead was bad for you. I've been told it won't kill you but it will affect the brain and make you retarded. Whenever my wife points out I am doing something retarded I blame all the lead vapors I breathed in the past. If it weren't for that I'd had been like Einstein. As it is I am like a retarded Einstein, bald and fat. Probably all due to the lead I ingested some decades ago.

[ataradov]

If you are doing electronics as a hobby, then really don't worry about lead exposure. It is not going to give you any issues.

I would be more worried about breathing flux fumes, especially from no-clean and active fluxes.

[bob91343]

In high school I played with mercury and it definitely got into my fingers.  I have been soldering with tin-lead alloy for most of my life, including inhaling the fumes, on a regular basis.  I didn't paint much but that stuff used to contain lead.  Not to speak of the toy soldiers, etc.

I don't know if my life expectancy has been threatened but this week I will be 87 and have no obvious symptoms of poisoning from these activities.

Today's world seems very paranoid.  I try to keep it on a common sense level.  I don't eat solder or mercury, primarily because I doubt it tastes good.  A side benefit is that I am not intentionally poisoning myself.

If I die from any of this, I promise to let you all know.

[soldar]

People who need to take care are those who work soldering all day in a production line. That type of thing.

Have a suction fan pulling fumes away.

[dcbrown73]

Use an extraction fan when soldering and wash your hands afterwards working with electronics. 

Things not to do while soldering.

• Eat finger foods
• Bite your nails
• Lick your fingers
• Lick your butt like a dog.  (Not lead, but still gross and will make you sick)

[janoc]

People who need to take care are those who work soldering all day in a production line. That type of thing.

Have a suction fan pulling fumes away.

Flux fumes, not lead. Lead needs somewhere around 800 480 degrees C (EDIT: it was 900 Fahrenheit I have remembered) to form toxic fumes, if I recall correctly. Normal soldering temperatures are nowhere near that.

If you search the forum, I have posted a link to a study in the past that did evaluate the effects of factory working populating boards every day and working with wave soldering machines and similar - the lead level in their bodies was pretty much the same as everyone else's (i.e. people that didn't work there). The risk was minimal.

Lead is a problem if you ingest it (e.g. lead shavings/dust - some people love to hold the solder wire in their mouth!). That is mitigated by basic hygiene - washing hands, not eating on your bench, etc. Or when it accumulates in the environment where it could leach into water or contaminate soil (e.g. from a landfill full of discarded electronics). That's why RoHS exists.

However, the risk for someone doing electronics soldering, even on a factory production line, is very low. Leaded solder has been used for electronics for almost 100 years and no issues with lead poisoning are known - the concentrations as just too tiny to have an effect. Leaded paint, water pipes or leaded gasoline that has been used for decades are much worse.

[ejeffrey]

Leaded paint, water pipes or leaded gasoline that has been used for decades are much worse.

Right.  These all have well known ingestion mechanisms.  Lead paint abrades and released dust or is chewed on by children.  Lead pipes are dissolve into water flowing through them. leaded gasoline is released into the air when burned or leaches into ground water when underground tanks leak (which they always do).  Likewise I would avoid anything that requires cutting, machining, or filing lead which would release lead dust.

Soldering isn't major problem for the operator as long as the aforementioned hygiene procedures are followed. The hazard from lead solder comes when the products are disposed of, either by landfill, shredding recycling, or incineration which all cause their own risks.

[james_s]

Leaded gasoline was probably the worst of all by a wide margin. It was atomized and spread all over the planet, during the heyday of leaded gas it was inescapable.

[Gyro]

Leaded gasoline was probably the worst of all by a wide margin. It was atomized and spread all over the planet, during the heyday of leaded gas it was inescapable.

From the man who also brought us CFCs! Sometimes you just can't catch a break.

[Mr. Scram]

Just bear in mind that children are especially susceptible to lead ingestion and may suffer irreversible developmental issues. Unless you lick your fingers after soldering you'll probably be fine but keep it away from children. Also note that while washing your hands with water and soap to remove lead is effective it isn't quite perfect.

[John B]

I always use disposable gloves. When cleaning out the brass wool, there's a lot of fine lead, almost powdered. I would imagine that poses the greatest risk, as it puts a lot of particles in the air, and they would dissolve the easiest.

[Mr. Scram]

I always use disposable gloves. When cleaning out the brass wool, there's a lot of fine lead, almost powdered. I would imagine that poses the greatest risk, as it puts a lot of particles in the air, and they would dissolve the easiest.

Gloves may very well be an ESD risk but I suppose that could be mitigated.

[themadhippy]

Drink plenty of milk.One of my first jobs was in an  oxide manufacturers , all the staff on the lead oxide plant were issued with a pint of milk a day.

[Electro Detective]

cheap fan for the fumes, extract or push away mode, anything is better than breathing the crap in,

cheap thin glove to handle the solder, the other hand can be without, to better handle the soddering/soldering/sardurring iron (pick one  )
and less fiddly parts placement etc.

cheap white mouth-nose protector with elastic thingie,

cheap clear or mild diopter magnifying glasses to see better > and catch any hot spatter and flying molten lead balls
before your eyes do. 

Maybe $20 all up ? cheaper than life insurance that you won't collect, hospital, lung machine hire, earlier funeral,

and worst of all, not being able to solder stuff anymore.   


FWIW: if you think lead solder may be a problem, welders will giggle    and tell you what real problems are   

[Nominal Animal]

As others have well said, lead is only dangerous if ingested or inhaled in vapour form.

As a lay person, it is difficult to get a good intuitive grasp of the actual risks of different materials.
For example, when one talks about uranium, "radiation!" is what pops into peoples minds, immediately.  Yet, uranium is just like lead in that it is a heavy metal that is chemically toxic to animal life, including humans.  Over 99% of uranium in nature is ²³⁸U.  Although radioactive (half-life is four and a half billion years), it is its chemical toxicity that is deadly, just like lead and mercury.  In fact, the dose that is 50% likely to kill you via radiation when ingested, is about 2x to 4x the amount that has already killed you due to its chemical toxicity.  So, unless you intend to wear it like clothes every day for decades, you can forget about the radiation when talking about ²³⁸U; it is its chemical toxicity that will kill you before you need to worry about any effects from its radiation.  And, exactly like with lead and mercury, it is in its fine particulate or vapour form that is the deadliest.  (As welders will tell you, metal vapours/fumes are deadly anyway.)
Uranium is actually even worse, because when vaporized, it reforms into tiny little particulates that may be even more dangerous (by mass, chemically) than the vapour, because of how they are better retained by biological organisms, causing even more damage.

Which makes claims about depleted uranium weaponry being safe utterly ridiculous, by the way.  They're worse than dum-dum bullets, with a droplet of mercury encased in the slug, as the resulting tiny little particulates after hitting any target remain chemically dangerous for decades.

(Your depressing fact for the week brought to you by Nominal Animal.  You're welcome.  I'm off to eat some 50-50 solder, just to see how it tastes.)