🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov17.175550.14583@netcom.com> kehoe@netcom.com (Thomas David Kehoe) writes:
>Will I get lead poisoning from breathing the smoke
>from solder?  I work next to an open window, and leave
>the soldering iron on the window sill, but when I'm
>doing close soldering work, I can't avoid breathing
>the smoke form the solder.
>
>I've switched to lead-free solder, which is 97% tin and
>3% silver (available at Radio Shack).  The label still
>says to avoid breathing the smoke.  Why doesn't everyone
>use th

Long term exposure to lead fumes from doing close soldering work is
most definitely bad for you. My father's health is showing the effects
of chronic exposure since as an electronics technician, he was exposed to
lead vapors almost every day for 35 years. His last physical showed an
abnormally high lead content in his blood. I grew up in his electronics
shop and since age 5 (I am now 31) and have done *a lot* of close soldering
myself. I'm sure that my health has also been damaged. I find it quite 
ironic that both my father and myself, being the techno-geeks we are, were
completely oblivious to the hazards of heavy metal poisoning by something
that seems so innocent like soldering. BTW tin is also a toxic heavy metal
and will poison you just as much as lead. If you really want to protect
yourself from the metal vapors, do all your soldering under a vent hood.

-- 
=============================================================================
Neal Howard   '91 XLH-1200      DoD #686      CompuTrac, Inc (Richardson, TX)
         "Let us learn to dream, gentlemen, and then perhaps
          we shall learn the truth." -- August Kekule' (1890)
=============================================================================