Soldering - is it carcinogenic?

[Jim Stutzman]

My two cents worth;

For the last 23 years, I have worked as an electronics tech, engineering
tech and design engineer. At one employer in the Puget Sound, WA. area, a
tech / engineer time study was done to see how much time was spent on
various steps of design / prototyping / troubleshooting / assembly / field
changes. It turned up an interesting fact about soldering, in that for
everyone EXCEPT assemblers, total time spent soldering was less than 5%.
While assemblers had a  higher 27% time, they also had significant increases
in venting / ventilation which negated a large part of the fume exposure.
Personally, I have been exposed to more than the assemblers dose as I have
also owned a couple of electronics repair businesses. Even at that exposure
level, I don't think there is a cause for alarm.  Study the temperature of
the pb/sn melting point vs. vapor temperature, yes a eutectic has a lower
melting point than the individual metals and that further depresses the
melting point.
The real test is, do you wash your hands before you eat or drink after using
solder? That single hygienic step makes more difference than anything else.

How can you tell the difference between an engineer and a chemist?

The chemist washes his hands BEFORE he unzips his pants.

Whew, that was more like eighty cents worth!




----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck W4MIL" <CEMILTON at AOL.COM>
To: <HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV>
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 18:41 Jim
Subject: Re: Soldering - is it carcinogenic?


> In a message dated 10/16/00 4:25:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> optom at ATTGLOBAL.NET writes:
>
> > Question - is it the lead or tin or the flux which is carcinogenic? And
> >  how is it carcinogenic - ingestion or inhalation of fumes during
> >  soldering? How much at risk are we?
>
>
> Harvey,
>
>  When was the last time you were struck by a meteor?  Sure, too much of
> anything will cause an adverse reaction in the human body.  But with
normal
> care taken during soldering, there is most likely little risk.  Now, the
rat
> poison and mercury consumers will differ with this.  BTW, just how much
> soldering are you doing.  I repair stuff, and have for years.  Soldering
is
> the least of my activities.
>
> Your mileage, and others, may vary.
>
> 73 de W4MIL
>
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