Health issues due to soldering fumes.

[paul8f]

Hi all,

as a teenager I spent hours and hours in my bedroom putting veroboard projects together and tinkering around with devices as many of us did when we were younger. The trouble is that I was the eldest sibling, and neither of my parents had a clue as to what electronics involved, never-mind the health&safety aspects of my hobby (...which later went on to become my career).

With no mentor or guidance, I proceeded to do a lot of 60/40 soldering in a small room with no filter fan or air extraction unit. I at least had the common sense to crack the top window opening, and blow the fumes away while soldering, but I don't think these practices were enough. Now approaching 40, I can't do 30 seconds worth of soldering without getting a headache, and instantly becoming totally run down with tiredness. The combination of these two symptoms I suppose you could compare to 'brain-fog.' I am currently working in the opto-electronics industry where I can avoid soldering, but I am very eager to get back to my first love of electronic debug and repair. The stress of not doing a job that I like is slowly killing me, and I urgently need to change something.

So my question is regarding how I should proceed with getting on top of these health issues... Has anyone ever been tested for chronic heavy-metal poisoning, what's involved, and if it's treatable what are the options available? (Not sure what I'm going to do with the current restrictions regarding the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis, but now is the time for me to gather all the advice that I can.) Please, please share your experiences or stories. I'd appreciate any weblinks too that may help.

Thanks, Paul.

[Siwastaja]

You don't get chronic heavy-metal poisoning from the soldering fumes; there are very little metals in the fumes. Boiling point for lead is 1749 degC. However, the smoke from the burning flux can still wreak havoc in your lungs. After the corona crisis is over, see a doctor, don't try to self-diagnose it.

[EEEnthusiast]

I have had the exact same issues and I though the same 'lead poisoning', but I was wrong. I had been a hobbyist from my childhood and started soldering very early and for long times. I started to see these problems when I reached mid 30s. I used to develop  a head ache after soldering for about 15 minutes. With some rest it used to be OK and then it came back again. I was worried and did not know what to do. I figured out the problem by myself after a long struggle.

1. Test your eyesight. You may have a very small positive power in your eyes which may cause nearby work to be difficult. In my case, the power in my eye was + 0.5 and +0.25 with some cylindrical power as well. These may seen small, but when you do close work for long time you may start getting eye strain and head aches. I had glasses on after the diagnosis and my head aches went away.
Make sure that the doctor dilates your pupils before the testing. Without dilation, you eye will compensate for the focal length and detecting small positive powers may be not possible.

2. Quit alcohol : I had formed the habit of drinking beer almost daily. With even smaller amounts of alcohol, the muscles in the body gets relaxed and the neurons fire slowly. The muscles controlling your eye's lenses are no exception to this. They also get weaker and loose their ability to focus at short distance. If you are into drinking alcohol, just abstain from that for a couple of weeks and check the difference. I'm sure you would see some positive change.

3. Amount of light : Add a bright light on your bench and focus it on the soldering area. It can do wonders for your eyes.

4. Use a magnifier when working with really small components like 0402 and fine pitch QFP ICs.

5. Quit coffee : Caffeine can mess up with some peoples eyesight.

6. Try green tea : Having green tea has really boosted my eyesight. Now I am without glasses for over 2 years. I am not 100% sure if it is only the green tea which has contributed to it, but from my personal experience, it has helped a lot. It is a powerful anti oxidant and stress reliever.  It can help cure your eye muscle fatigue when taken over long duration. It may take months before you see a difference. Just 2 cups a day for 1 month should be enough to notice some result.

7. Cut down sugar and switch to honey for your tea.

These may seem medical advises, but these have worked for me. I wish you the best.

[Kilo Tango]

You might want to get checked out for Asthama, https://www.hse.gov.uk/lung-disease/electronics-soldering.htm .

I speak from experience.

Ken

[Zero999]

Lead free solder is much worse for the lungs, than leaded because it has a much stronger flux. A clueless health and safety manager where I work wanted us to move over to unleaded solder (we're exempt from RoHS regulations), but we managed to persuade him that it's not the lead that's the problem.

[Gyro]

If you do Forum searches for 'solder fumes' and 'Lead fumes' you will get a lot of thread hits. This question comes up a lot. 

[m98]

You might've been sensitised to rosin through long and frequent exposure. Not too much you can do about that, apart from general health measures such as adjusting your diet, enough physical exercise, reducing overall stress, etc. You should also talk to your doctor about it.

Use a good fume extractor for soldering to reduce the exposure, and try different fluxes, as you might not be as sensitive to many "no-clean" types.

[jmelson]

1. Test your eyesight.

Oh WOW!  This is brilliant!  Yes, I've always been nearsigted (seriously so, my eyes focus about 5" away without glasses).
But, if I do any fine task with small parts for more than a couple minutes, I get into a condition where I can't focus on anything
farther away, even with my glasses.  it takes a half hour to recover.  So, for any extended project, I use either a flip-down magnifying visor for not-so-small stuff, or a stereo zoom microscope for SMT soldering.  These get rid of the eye strain issue, and I can work for hours with little
problem.

Now, in my particular case, i don't get a "headache" from doing it without the optical aids, but I can easily see how others might get one.
And, maybe if I forced myself to do the close-up tasks without the aids, I might get into a headache, too.

Jon

[jogri]

Now approaching 40, I can't do 30 seconds worth of soldering without getting a headache, and instantly becoming totally run down with tiredness. The combination of these two symptoms I suppose you could compare to 'brain-fog.'

Well, you are basically breathing a nasty cocktail of organic chemicals that are created when the flux gets vaporized and partly oxydized. I experienced the same symptoms when i was working in an organic chemistry lab for the first time, it kicked in almost instantly and made it nearly impossible to work efficiently. It got better over the course of 1-2 weeks and completely vanished after two weeks, but it wasn't a fun experience.

You could go to a doctor, but i don't think that he can tell you more than "just don't use it if it makes you sick". So your options are either to try and ignore the symptoms (and hope that they go away) or use solder that doesn't contain rosin/flux, combined with a flux pen that has a minimal amount of resin.

[Kleinstein]

The issue with the soldering fumes is a little similar to smoking cigarettes or the new modern evaporators. The organic material gets partially burned decomposed and this includes some tar like substances. Another issue may Acrolein that can be part of the decomposition products. This is why the filter should be more than just a mechanical filter, but also include some activated coal.

Still don't panic - you may get the same stuff with meat from the grill.

[SiliconWizard]

May sound obvious, but just use a decent fume extractor. Won't cut off your exposure to some fumes completely, but enough that it won't matter.

As to leaded solder wire... I think the most critical issue with them is not the fumes, it's just touching it - after years of that, not that great. And don't touch your mouth while you're soldering. Of course it's relatively easy to mitigate the risk. Just don't touch your face at all when you're soldering, possibly wear latex gloves if you're really concerned... or at least wash your hands well when you're done.

One habit that I've seen (especially in older guys) is that some people would sometimes hold soldering wires with their mouth. Yep. Just don't do that.

[not1xor1]

you (paul8f) might use an air purifier
they usually have various kind of filters (usually at least coarse + carbon + HEPA)
I got a Philips model and am quite satisfied

there are lots of manufacturers and models and you should be able to find lot of reviews and tests on the net

[janoc]

Hi all,

as a teenager I spent hours and hours in my bedroom putting veroboard projects together and tinkering around with devices as many of us did when we were younger. The trouble is that I was the eldest sibling, and neither of my parents had a clue as to what electronics involved, never-mind the health&safety aspects of my hobby (...which later went on to become my career).

With no mentor or guidance, I proceeded to do a lot of 60/40 soldering in a small room with no filter fan or air extraction unit. I at least had the common sense to crack the top window opening, and blow the fumes away while soldering, but I don't think these practices were enough. Now approaching 40, I can't do 30 seconds worth of soldering without getting a headache, and instantly becoming totally run down with tiredness. The combination of these two symptoms I suppose you could compare to 'brain-fog.' I am currently working in the opto-electronics industry where I can avoid soldering, but I am very eager to get back to my first love of electronic debug and repair. The stress of not doing a job that I like is slowly killing me, and I urgently need to change something.

So my question is regarding how I should proceed with getting on top of these health issues... Has anyone ever been tested for chronic heavy-metal poisoning, what's involved, and if it's treatable what are the options available? (Not sure what I'm going to do with the current restrictions regarding the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis, but now is the time for me to gather all the advice that I can.) Please, please share your experiences or stories. I'd appreciate any weblinks too that may help.

Thanks, Paul.

If you had heavy metal (lead) poisoning, you would have those symptoms all the time, not only while soldering. Lead and similar accumulate in your body and poison you over time, not only when you encounter fumes. Another thing is that getting lead poisoning from soldering is pretty much unheard of, even factory workers that solder the entire shift, every day or operate the wave soldering machines were not found to have elevated lead levels in their bodies.

Your issues sound more like an eye strain, as some others have pointed out already (I am starting to have those issues too unless I use magnification - we aren't getting any younger!) and maybe your body isn't liking the flux fumes. Either because you got sensitive to them (or even allergic!) over time or because you are using a particularly nasty flux/solder wire (not all fluxes are made equal - the classic rosin flux is an irritant but some synthetic fluxes are way worse).

[VK3DRB]

The old corrosive fluxes were definitely bad for your lungs, and I used to wheeze a bit when doing a lot of soldering, but I was fine. These days, fluxes are pretty safe.

As for lead solder, I love the stuff. Been soldering for 45 years with 60/40 lead/tin. NO PROBLEMS!

The old TVs had a heat sink thermal compound containing beryllium oxide.  Yep, used that stuff a bit in the early days. NO PROBLEMS!

Now the IBM old unit record machines (models 082, 083, 548, 557, 519, 514) which I used to work on when I first started at IBM contained capacitors containing polychlorobiphenyls. Highly carcinogenic and incredibly toxic. NO PROBLEMS!

Not the mention the myriad of toxic chemicals I used at IBM (tape cleaner), and that one of the IBM customers (Siemens in Richmond, Melbourne) has asbestos dust chunks falling from the ceiling and filling the fans and vents of the mainframe I occasionally had to vacuum out. NO PROBLEMS!

Oh yes, the IBM plant in Wangaratta. Carcinogenic bromides given off when a PCB caught fire. NO PROBLEMS!

At home I sprayed with Dieldrin, DDT, Roundup etc. I once sprayed my Holden 186 red motor in a tiny shed with lead-based red paint without a mask, coating my lungs with lead paint. Bloody idiot thought I was invincible. NO PROBLEMS!

...SO FAR!

[james_s]

If it was years ago there are likely not any effects now that you'd be able to link to the soldering with any certainty. Even long-time cigarette smokers' lungs largely recover eventually after they quit.

I've long had a habit of blowing gently as I solder to deflect the smoke away from my face and prevent inhaling it. More recently I got a little benchtop extractor with a hose and a carbon filter in the base, it makes it a lot less hassle and the lady doesn't complain anymore if I solder something on the coffee table while watching TV. I should have bought or built something like it years ago.

[EEEnthusiast]

Checking the eyes is the easiest and fastest thing which can rule out many other issues. I had the same brain fog effect after few minutes of soldering and I was also worried if my brain had been fried due to years of lead use. But I was lucky to get the issue identified and fix it.

Fumes may produce asthma or breathing difficulties..and a head ache if you are allergic to some fumes.
A simplest thing is to try out other close up work to see if the same symptoms appear.
Good luck.

[Electro Detective]

The solder you are using and or the flux in it may be crap,

and or the soldering iron may be running too hot,

or breathing in idle tip burning crusty residues  etc

Also what you are soldering to may be giving off a combo of nasty fumes with the solder, that don't agree with you

Next time try soldering with protective eyeware , thin gloves

and wear one of those cheap face masks that are USELESS for the Corona virass, yet good enough for direct solder fumes in your face


If that fails on improvement, it's time to consider knocking up a cheap tacky DIY fume extraction setup

Good luck 


 
EDIT:
"Next time try soldering with protective eyeware , thin gloves"

Clarified sentence >  "Next time try soldering with protective eyeware , thin LEATHER or fire resist gloves" 

FYI >  test  ~burn~ the gloves BEFORE putting them on 

[jogri]

Next time try soldering with protective eyeware , thin gloves

and wear one of those cheap face masks that are USELESS for the Corona virass, yet good enough for direct solder fumes in your face

Please don't do that, soldering while wearing rubber gloves is a good way to get yourself into the emergency room... A burn might hurt for a while, but having molten plastic inside a wound is a totally different story.
Btw, at a guess i'd say that the normal face mask won't do anything against the fumes: We are dealing with gases, those particles are way too small to get blocked by the mask. You would need a mask that has a layer of activated carbon, and those masks are long gone.

[Nauris]

There seems to be big difference between brands too. Bought some small spool of Stannol solder and it makes me cough and feel ill immediately. Smoke it makes is just so terrible I can't use it at all. But my two decades old spool of Multicore solder, no such symptoms. Both are lead-free, so the difference is not in that. But anyway I use solderless breadboard usually.

[jmelson]

Next time try soldering with protective eyeware , thin gloves

Please don't do that, soldering while wearing rubber gloves is a good way to get yourself into the emergency room... A burn might hurt for a while, but having molten plastic inside a wound is a totally different story.

Well, it would be extremely rare to have an accident where an electronics soldering iron pierced the skin.  I have gotten VERY good at always knowing where the tip of the iron is, and also gotten my reaction time down to where if anything touches me unexpectedly I swing the soldering iron away from my hands.  Maybe once a year I touch my hand with the iron, and almost never get a burn as I pull it away SUPER fast.
That's a skill to develop if you are going to be doing this a lot.  When soldering under the microscope, the area I'm working on is in the field of view, but my hands and most of the soldering iron are NOT, so you just need to know where your hands and the iron are.

Still, for protection from heavy metals, just wash you hands after soldering, it will all come off.

Jon

[james_s]

Now the IBM old unit record machines (models 082, 083, 548, 557, 519, 514) which I used to work on when I first started at IBM contained capacitors containing polychlorobiphenyls. Highly carcinogenic and incredibly toxic. NO PROBLEMS!

PCB oil is not especially toxic, and it won't give you cancer to just touch the stuff, I knew some old utility guys who used to wade in vaults of the stuff. It's actually very inert and that is part of the problem with it. When it leaks out onto the ground as utility transformers occasionally do, or ends up in a landfill and eventually leaks, it doesn't break down. It sticks around for a very long time and eventually ends up in the groundwater. It gets into your body where it also doesn't break down and eventually can cause problems, that's the issue with it.

[jogri]

PCB oil is not especially toxic, and it won't give you cancer to just touch the stuff, I knew some old utility guys who used to wade in vaults of the stuff.

It all depends on which congener you touch... There are a bunch that can interact with the same receptors as dioxins, and those are toxic af and there are other congeners that can't do that and are rather harmless. But since PCB oil is a mixture of multiple different congeners (you can't separate them easily and why should you if all have the same physical properties) you don't know the portion of toxic molecules. You could be lucky and have a manufacturer whose reactors just happen to only create the non-toxic variant, but this could change with their next batch...

And messing around with substances that can interact with your hormon system (dioxins) is a really, really bad idea.

[james_s]

Interesting, well either way there are good reasons we got rid of the stuff. I just think many people tend to be overly paranoid about things. Asbestos is another example, it could be harmful in some situations and to some people however it was mostly occupational exposure that caused cancer. Miners and shipyard workers and such who were exposed to large amounts of asbestos, many of them also smokers. I recall reading that the health effects were far greater in people who both smoked and were exposed to asbestos than in those who only had one or the other. A lot of the regulations around asbestos and the removal of it were pushed by the asbestos removal industry itself which tends to make me a little suspicious. More recently a friend was telling me they're running out of asbestos to remove so the latest thing to worry about is formaldehyde in fiberglass insulation. Nothing compares to radiation when it comes to causing irrational fear though, they stopped making the good thorium oxide based lamp mantles because they are slightly radioactive even though the dose from normal use is extremely small. People worry about granite counters due to them being very, very slightly radioactive, or the tiny dose form a dental xray not even realizing that natural radiation is everywhere.

[jogri]

As long as you don't break an asbestos sheet it is perfectly safe to handle... I just don't get the "we have to get rid of it NOW" movement, it isn't going to harm you if you don't screw around with it.

@james: Thorium oxide is currently having a comeback as a "negative ion source" in some chinese "healing" products... Funny given the fact that it actually emits He2+ ions^^^

[Electro Detective]

Next time try soldering with protective eyeware , thin gloves

and wear one of those cheap face masks that are USELESS for the Corona virass, yet good enough for direct solder fumes in your face

Please don't do that, soldering while wearing rubber gloves is a good way to get yourself into the emergency room...
A burn might hurt for a while, but having molten plastic inside a wound is a totally different story.
Btw, at a guess i'd say that the normal face mask won't do anything against the fumes: We are dealing with gases, those particles are way too small to get blocked by the mask. You would need a mask that has a layer of activated carbon, and those masks are long gone.

Good points 

I have revised that comment to allow for any lack of common sense

"Next time try soldering with protective eyeware , thin LEATHER or fire resist gloves"
FYI >  test  ~burn~ the gloves BEFORE putting them on

and those cheap face masks will protect one from surprise direct fumes, giving the frugal operator time to back off or turn away = better than no mask and copping a face full of crap fumes

Anyway it's worked for ages for me, especially when too lazy to set up a cheap fan and aim it..        

YMMV/EMMV applies

[james_s]

I picked up the wrong end of a firestick a few times when I was a kid but I haven't had that happen since getting a soldering station with a decent stand. Closest I've come is brushing my finger just briefly with the barrel of the iron, makes a sizzle sound but doesn't burn living tissue if it's just an instantaneous brush. I don't think gloves offer much benefit to soldering, just wash your hands well when you're done and don't eat finger food while doing it.

[tooki]

The old corrosive fluxes were definitely bad for your lungs, and I used to wheeze a bit when doing a lot of soldering, but I was fine. These days, fluxes are pretty safe.

What are you talking about?!? Modern lead-free fluxes are far more aggressive to the lungs than old rosin flux was. Did you not read the thread before replying, where even a health and safety official in a company was able to be convinced that the modern fluxes are worse than the old ones?

[tooki]

There seems to be big difference between brands too. Bought some small spool of Stannol solder and it makes me cough and feel ill immediately. Smoke it makes is just so terrible I can't use it at all. But my two decades old spool of Multicore solder, no such symptoms. Both are lead-free, so the difference is not in that. But anyway I use solderless breadboard usually.

Stannol and Multicore are the same company (Henkel). But they make many different fluxes, so even within lead-free, there are some that are rosin based, others organic chemical based, others synthetic resin...

[Electro Detective]

The same rules that the welding industry never stops pumping into wannabee zappers should be the same in soldering

Avoid any and all fumes at any cost,
or consider a career change asap

i.e. when melting any metal to metal,
your are going to have a bad day breathing in crap that human lungs were not designed for from birth = DUH...   

[GlennSprigg]

I'm old now, so I'm sorry that I don't give a F$%# now!   
If I can't smell the solder/flux when doing my 'work' then it just doesn't seem real! 
I've been 'Doing-It' & 'Smelling-It' for over 50 years now, and it has nothing to do with
my life limiting condition as we speak!!  (Except being informed about my Grammar !!  )

I guess it's all to do with teaching an old dog new tricks. I'll leave that to the Future! 

[SilverSolder]

If you are sensitive to the fumes, maybe arrange for a "proper" fume extractor, i.e. one with a hose that actually pumps the fumes outside the house.  It could easily be a DIY solution, with a hose going out through the window or something...

[james_s]

My partner is very sensitive to fumes, if I burn an oil lamp she complains bitterly about the smell of kerosene even when it isn't strong enough for me to smell it at all. I got a small fume extractor that sucks the air through an activated charcoal filter and that has been sufficient to stop the complaining about soldering smells.

[Pinkus]

I would have a dermatologist check if there is an allergy to colophony. The flux contains colophony and an allergy to it is not uncommon.
I, for example, have such a rosin (colophony) allergy with various cross-allergies. Since I am sucking off the soldering fumes, I have no more problems.
I usually use a tiny suction nozzle mounted to the soldering iron (Weller WFE P) and for some other jobs a big suction device (Pace Arm Eva 250). The Weller suction nozzle can also be attached well to soldering irons of other manufacturers (in my case JBC T245). I would never ever work without it. It sucks off 99% of the fume immediately after it emergences. I'll try to submit a photo later.

[MT]

Hi all,

as a teenager I spent hours and hours in my bedroom putting veroboard projects together and tinkering around with devices as many of us did when we were younger. The trouble is that I was the eldest sibling, and neither of my parents had a clue as to what electronics involved, never-mind the health&safety aspects of my hobby (...which later went on to become my career).

With no mentor or guidance, I proceeded to do a lot of 60/40 soldering in a small room with no filter fan or air extraction unit. I at least had the common sense to crack the top window opening, and blow the fumes away while soldering, but I don't think these practices were enough. Now approaching 40, I can't do 30 seconds worth of soldering without getting a headache, and instantly becoming totally run down with tiredness. The combination of these two symptoms I suppose you could compare to 'brain-fog.' I am currently working in the opto-electronics industry where I can avoid soldering, but I am very eager to get back to my first love of electronic debug and repair. The stress of not doing a job that I like is slowly killing me, and I urgently need to change something.

So my question is regarding how I should proceed with getting on top of these health issues... Has anyone ever been tested for chronic heavy-metal poisoning, what's involved, and if it's treatable what are the options available? (Not sure what I'm going to do with the current restrictions regarding the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis, but now is the time for me to gather all the advice that I can.) Please, please share your experiences or stories. I'd appreciate any weblinks too that may help.

Thanks, Paul.

I suggest you try ASMR, meditation and other inwards looking/relaxing methods then to kill your self to an drug addiction
such as soldering. Try magic mushrooms, walk in the forests, bicycling, balooning, parapeting, rally car d riving, what have you! Get a cat!

[paul8f]

Lead doesn't boil off at any reasonable temperature. The fume is mostly flux. Theoretically lead can get oxidized and the nano oxide particle gets carried by larger flux particles in the smoke, but that's highly unlikely since the flux is there to prevent oxidation and to reduce oxidized layer to promote wetting.

Apologies for taking so long to respond to any of the replies. That makes sense that it's the flux you need to be more concerned with. The multicore solder-wire I normally use has a rosin based no-clean flux.

[paul8f]

1. Test your eyesight:   ....I just got a 2nd opinion from a different optometrist, and sure enough my lens prescription was a little too strong. Not good when I can spend up to 2 hours a day driving. Thanks for the heads up!

2. Quit alcohol:  ....Haven't had alcohol in over a year and a half.

3. Amount of light: ....Already use a light a work, but my home set-up needs improvement.

4. Use a magnifier:  ....Check!

5. Quit coffee : ....Very rarely drink caffeine (maybe 2-3 cups of tea a month)

6. Try green tea : ....Green tea is supposed to have as much caffeine as black tea. I use herbal teas instead.

7. Avoid sugar:  ....I avoid it like the plague, and I read product ingredients like they're going out of fashion! I have a treat maybe once a month.
Thanks again.

[paul8f]

....wanted us to move over to unleaded solder (we're exempt from RoHS regulations)....

Just curious...., what sectors are exempt from RoHS?

[paul8f]

May sound obvious, but just use a decent fume extractor.

I open the window, and use a basic bench-top fume filter, but I've no way to direct the air outside. I'd really love a proper extraction system, but I can't afford one, and then there's the extra cost and hassle of boring holes in walls....

[paul8f]

You might want to get checked out for Asthama

I've heard it can be linked to asthma, but I think what might not be helping me is hay-fever, and possibly a mild food intolerance to something. Now just to figure out what that something is...!

[jogri]

....wanted us to move over to unleaded solder (we're exempt from RoHS regulations)....

Just curious...., what sectors are exempt from (the ban of leaded solder by) RoHS?

Primarily automotive but also telecommunications (partly)

[paul8f]

Primarily automotive but also telecommunications (partly)

Automotive... I'm guessing due to the wide temperature swings and vibrations?
Telecommunications... something to do with reliability too?

[Zero999]

Primarily automotive but also telecommunications (partly)

Automotive... I'm guessing due to the wide temperature swings and vibrations?
Telecommunications... something to do with reliability too?

Added aerospace to the list, or at least I believe, but I don't work in a place which manufactures electronics, so we don't have a to comply with RoHS.

[MrMobodies]

6. Try green tea : Having green tea has really boosted my eyesight. Now I am without glasses for over 2 years. I am not 100% sure if it is only the green tea which has contributed to it, but from my personal experience, it has helped a lot. It is a powerful anti oxidant and stress reliever.  It can help cure your eye muscle fatigue when taken over long duration. It may take months before you see a difference. Just 2 cups a day for 1 month should be enough to notice some result.

7. Cut down sugar and switch to honey for your tea.

I am hearing all good things about green tea. Got to give a try.

A couple of days ago I starting seeing strange things in my vision and it happens when I don't do much work eat sugary things or bread and I end up going to sleep for a while so now I am trying to be careful.

[Wallace Gasiewicz]

I worked in health and safety. One of the things we had to monitor was lead.
Lead almost always gets into the body through the mouth.
Things like zinc can be very harmful as "fumes, lead can be also. This happens when someone welds or cuts with a torch.
This is called "metal fume fever" and is quite striking and can make you very sick for a short time. Again this is with usually cutting or welding. Solder temperatures are not that high.
Lead poisoning happens almost always through the mouth. Grinding used to be a common cause of lead poisoning in auto body production when lead was used to cover seams in auto bodies. The lead was applied in semi solid form at controlled temperatures with such implements as putty knives and then ground down with powered grinders. Talk about a good (bad?)  way to get particles airborne and into your face!!! This has been eliminated in production as far as I know. This method of auto body repair also resulted in the term "lead sled" i.e. a custom auto body. Almost impossible to find anyone who is skilled enough to do this.
Another place where lead exposure can be high is in lead battery recycling where old batteries are crushed and lead separated by physical methods before being re smelted. Also lead smelting and refining.
We had one goofy guy who had high lead levels. Turns out he had a habit of keeping bullets in his pocket (I do not know why), bullet to hand to mouth. I just bring this up to emphasize the oral rout. This would also go to old toy lead soldiers and old toys painted in lead paint.
Lead levels decreased in workers when proper industrial hygiene was implemented. The most effective procedures for safety included bans on eating, drinking and smoking when there was lead dust involved. Also there were facilities available for showering and for containment of work clothing so lead would not follow workers home.
Slag from the top of molten lead pots is dangerous also. It can become airborne as dust much more easily than molten lead. This is dust,not "fumes", but a bad source of lead exposure.
Childhood lead poising is mostly from eating lead paint which tasted pretty good. Another source is water. There are thousands of miles of lead pipes carrying city water to millions of homes last that I knew. (Remember Flint, Michigan??) This can be a problem if the water is acidic, then the lead leaches from the pipes and into the water. Some pewter serving vessels and some ceramic glazes contained lead. Do not drink tomato juice or lemonade from these . These vessels are an unlikely source of lead poisoning. I do not think they make these things anymore but there are some old ones about and who knows what amateur potters will use?
As far as "flux" goes... It is variable. There are many "fluxes" one of the predominant fluxes in the past was Rosin, a pine tree product used in lots of things including shoe manufacturing and the bag at pitcher's mound. It can be an allergen. Some people are allergic to it and get allergic rashes.

Multiple studies have shown no risk to solderers in electronic assembly in the past where soldering was done by hand. This was done in assembly where workers soldered 8 hours a day. But again proper hygiene and eliminating oral rout of contamination by little particles of lead is necessary.
Here is my opinion:
Solder fume extractors probably do not meet any standards but cannot hurt. They just take some smoke particles out of the air. Good idea but no where near getting most of the particles out of the air. Can't hurt.
Proper hygiene should focus on hand to mouth contamination with lead. Lead will rub off on your fingers just by handling cold solder, Just look at you fingers after an hour or so of soldering.

There were people who were advertising "chelation" as a treatment for undiagnosed chronic heavy metal poisoning(all sorts of heavy metals, not just lead). Chelation is extremely dangerous and can kill you.

As to the "allergic" reaction described as being "foggy", pardon me if this offends you, that is not my intention. These "unusual" symptoms have been described in connection to all sorts of things, one of them is chocolate.(believe it or not).
I really do not know if these things are really connected to the alleged "allergen" but there are some boni fide real allergists (MDs) who believe it. Things like this are an ongoing topic and I reserve my right to have no opinion except to again say there are some very conservative good allergists who believe in these allergic connections.(maybe "allergic" is the wrong term here maybe "idiosyncratic" to include non allergic reactions?) If this is the case that there is some sort of individual reaction, I would doubt that a standard solder fume filter would eliminate the exposure.
Allergies like "hay fever", (really ragweed or Russian ragweed, i.e tumbleweed) do make people sleepy besides making them miserable. I know, I have hay fever.
Wally

[cdev]

Look up "colophony disease" on Pubmed. That is probably what you have.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=colophony

Hi all,

as a teenager I spent hours and hours in my bedroom putting veroboard projects together and tinkering around with devices as many of us did when we were younger. The trouble is that I was the eldest sibling, and neither of my parents had a clue as to what electronics involved, never-mind the health&safety aspects of my hobby (...which later went on to become my career).

With no mentor or guidance, I proceeded to do a lot of 60/40 soldering in a small room with no filter fan or air extraction unit. I at least had the common sense to crack the top window opening, and blow the fumes away while soldering, but I don't think these practices were enough. Now approaching 40, I can't do 30 seconds worth of soldering without getting a headache, and instantly becoming totally run down with tiredness. The combination of these two symptoms I suppose you could compare to 'brain-fog.' I am currently working in the opto-electronics industry where I can avoid soldering, but I am very eager to get back to my first love of electronic debug and repair. The stress of not doing a job that I like is slowly killing me, and I urgently need to change something.

So my question is regarding how I should proceed with getting on top of these health issues... Has anyone ever been tested for chronic heavy-metal poisoning, what's involved, and if it's treatable what are the options available? (Not sure what I'm going to do with the current restrictions regarding the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis, but now is the time for me to gather all the advice that I can.) Please, please share your experiences or stories. I'd appreciate any weblinks too that may help.

Thanks, Paul.

You might want to consider a powered heat recovery ventlator (such as fantech, with an aluminum core) to remove the fumes at the source and exchange your stale indoor air with relatively fresh outdoor air

They'd also reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19 in any indoor space. If I was an employer I would definitely get one for my work area. put the registers for the exhaust part behind / above the work desks.

MAybe you should see if n-acetyl cysteine reduces your fatigue symptoms. NAC is a precrsor of glutathione, which is the body's natural antioxidant. Its a good thing to take for any respiratory condition.