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Really RS Components, I am not allowed to order solder anymore??

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Wallace Gasiewicz:
I am a US Physician who was definitely involved in occupational lead exposure control. There are still lead PIPES everywhere. All the cities had mostly lead pipes. Only newer communities have plastic pipes and even those communities may get their water from the old system. Remember, Plumber comes from the Latin word for Lead. There are some theories that lead exposure brought down the Roman Empire.
The Flint, Michigan exposure came from switching the water from the usual source, which was the Detroit Water System, to a local river, which had been polluted from industrial use a long time ago (and could dissolve the lead in the old pipes)
I don't know who thought the river water was OK, nobody in Michigan who I know of would drink from any river near Flint. I am from Michigan.
I would imagine the use of lead pipes was universal outside of the US also.
Lead leaches into the water if the water is acidic. Otherwise it does not leach out in any quantity.
Some ceramic (homemade pottery mostly) had lead in the glaze and this could leach out if you used the bowl for something like tomato sauce. Pewter tableware had lead in it in the past and lots of it is still in use. Never serve Gazpacho in hand made ceramics.
Burning batteries for recycling has always been a big contributor to workplace lead exposure and there are special rules and process for dealing with this exposure. Lead is remelted from old, dead batteries.
Lead was banned from car bodies because of the occupational exposure, smoothing out the lead joints meant grinding at some point which put the lead into the air quite efficiently.
Lead slag on top of molten solder pots is an issue because it is discarded and turn easily to dust.
Hand soldering, even in mass production, has never been shown to be a risk from lead fumes, but hand to mouth is certainly the risk and there are OSHA rules for these occupations. Wash your hands before dinner is just one of the rules that applies to us.

Chemicals do leach out of plastic pipes also but the compounds disappear from the water after using the pipes for maybe a few weeks.

Keith956:

--- Quote from: james_s on February 17, 2021, 08:38:09 pm ---I wonder how much of the lead actually makes it into the water, I'm guessing it must be not much. My house is all copper plumbing with leaded solder.
--- End quote ---

A bit like 'How much mercury in tooth fillings is absorbed over the years'. Arguably removing it is more dangerous than leaving it there.

CambridgeMart:
I also fell foul of the RS refusing to ship leaded solder to 'non professional' users and being hit with a postage charge because it reduced the order value belowe £30. The irony is that I am a professional engineer as well as a hobbyist, but I don't run a business (I'm sure many of us are in the same boat), so the rule has become that they will only sell to registered businesses regardless of whether there's anyone qualified in the business or not.
As far as the environmental aspect is concerned, where does lead come from in the first place? Granted it's not pure lead in most cases, but lead sulphide (galena), but that doesn't make it any less harmful.

Microdoser:

--- Quote from: CambridgeMart on April 16, 2021, 11:17:16 am ---I also fell foul of the RS refusing to ship leaded solder to 'non professional' users and being hit with a postage charge because it reduced the order value belowe £30. The irony is that I am a professional engineer as well as a hobbyist, but I don't run a business (I'm sure many of us are in the same boat), so the rule has become that they will only sell to registered businesses regardless of whether there's anyone qualified in the business or not.
As far as the environmental aspect is concerned, where does lead come from in the first place? Granted it's not pure lead in most cases, but lead sulphide (galena), but that doesn't make it any less harmful.

--- End quote ---

In my case I was purchasing it for my business, a business which is registered and designs electronics, but they still did not want to sell it to me! I tried click and collect first, and was told it had to be posted, then when I tried to get it posted they just removed it from the order without even telling me.

After a strongly worded message, they still did not reply or communicate in any way, they just shipped it and charged me the right amount, being free postage.

I now have enough solder to see me for many years. I think I will try various dodgy sources on AliExpress before I buy from RS again...

RayRay:
My advice to anyone encountering this issue, get Mechanic 63/37 solder from Aliexpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000808497448.html
or this:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000273337131.html
Their solder is of excellent quality, and I've had nothing but good experience with it!

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