Potential silly ?: Can kids get lead poisoning from handling components/solder/?

[hippo]

I don't know exactly where do you live, I live in Milan and I think that is not the best place for everyone's  Health! My 4 year old son is learning to desoldering caps from PCBs and he makes him very happy. I think he can breath more lead when he is walking on the street than when he is "helping" is daddy twice a month.

[jrem]

omg, I must be dead.

[The Tone God]

omg, I must be dead.

The dead must raising up and coming back to build pedals. How can we stop them ? How can we save humanity ? How can we compete with that kind of "mojo"

For the record I don't use latex gloves when soldering but machinist gloves that are fairly form fitting. Besides protecting me from possible lead contamination they also protect from burns, solder splats, stabbing leads, cuts, scratches, etc. My hands thank me all the time.

Andrew

[Paul Marossy]

The dead must raising up and coming back to build pedals

Haw! That would be a good movie - "The Night of the Living Dead, Building Guitar Pedals Edition" 

[nelson]

I dont use ventilation, or gloves, or wash my hands after soldering.

I think I should move to lead free solder.

"Does my brain feel heavier to you?"

[gez]

I think I should move to lead free solder.

You don't have much choice due to the EU.  It takes a little time to get used to.  When I first switched I made a few bad joints so spent some time practicing on a bit of scrap PCB til I got the hang of it.  No problems now.

[Joecool85]

Where do you get your lead free solder?

[gez]

Where do you get your lead free solder?

In the UK?  Loads of places sell it.  Maplin, Rapid, ESR (though they only do the thin stuff...which I actually prefer).

[Joecool85]

How about in the USA, or online.

[Hal]

bear in mint that the fall Roman emprie was suspected to have been caused by drinking from lead cups over a lifetime (with shorter life expectancy in general ok...). That's far more leadoxide than we will accidentally "consume" from soldering.

I heard it was from fermenting wine in lead vats, but regardless, its not from building guitar effects :-D.

[niftydog]

It is a concern, but only due to the fact that lead takes a long time to be purged from your system, so repeated small exposures over time can build up to a dangerous level in the body.

Everyone should be washing their hands after soldering anyway - not just because of the lead!

[Joecool85]

Yeah, I just picked up some lead free solder from radioshack and still washed my hands after using it.  Anyone else get a headache after using that stuff?  Regular solder doesn't bug me, but apparently this stuff does.  I'll have to get some more ventilation (not that thats a bad thing anyway, the more the better when soldering.)

[dv8]

Absorbtion rates for children's internal organs (livers and kidneys) compared to an adult is significantly different.  Children digest and it stays in there system, adults can disgest and pass it through.

The same chemical and elements that adults can be exposed too is sometimes 100x the exposure rates of children.  Thus, we don't build schools and playgrounds on closed landfills or at closed nuclear facilities.

Don't digest lead based projects.  Good news if you ingest too much, there are good warning signs, you usually have nightmares and memory loss.

-brian

[gez]

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/bespoke/bespoke8.jsp?bespokepage=farnell/en/rohs/rohs/solder/faq.jsp