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

[wampcat1]

My 5 year old LOVES to put components on my breadboard...I apologize for the silly question, but I'm just not sure:
Is it dangerous for them?

Thanks,
Brian

[vanessa]

I had a job once were I was required to take an update training course on soldering. In the course they made us train in solder station safety. One thing that was stressed was that we were not to leave the work area before we washed our hands. That due to the fact solder contains lead it's possible to transfer this into your system via food drink etc... Of course there is lead-free solder, $$$.
A small child tends to put everything in their mouths. I would not have them around your solder station. And I would also point out small parts can easily be swallowed and can be choked on.

[The Tone God]

I don't know if you can get lead poisoning but there could be other health concenquences even if not a case of full blown poisoning. I would actively disscourage the handling of solder just to be safe. I still make it a habit to always solder with gloves on and wash my hands after I'm done especially before I cook/eat.

Andrew

[Paul Marossy]

My 2-year old boy wants to help with anything I'm doing at my workbench! Of course, I can't let him do much of anything while I'm at the bench, but he gets real excited when I give him a piece of empty perf to hold. It's cute. Anyhow, he likes that tube of solder that I have and even tries to say "solder", but it doesn't quite come out right. It's funny, after you become a parent, just about anything in your house becomes potentially dangerous! 

[Jaicen_solo]

I second that!

The problem with lead poisining is that it has a cumulative effect. Because our metabolism is unable to excrete lead, it builds up in your body until it starts to do some serious damge (ie, blocking blood vessels in the brain). Those little periods of exposure can soon add up.
That said, I'm not sure how much actual lead there is in most components today, particularly in the US. I think solder fumes would be your main concern.

[vanessa]

I second that!

The problem with lead poisining is that it has a cumulative effect. Because our metabolism is unable to excrete lead, it builds up in your body until it starts to do some serious damge (ie, blocking blood vessels in the brain). Those little periods of exposure can soon add up.
That said, I'm not sure how much actual lead there is in most components today, particularly in the US. I think solder fumes would be your main concern.

Your right I forgot about that. I believe the context of lead exposure was the cumulative effect of it. Also what would have a small effect on adults can have a greater effect on a child (size, weight), long term/short term.

[AL]

Lead seems to be a pretty big buzz word these days. It is hazardous. An MSDS quick search shows it has a health rating of 2 (on a scale of 4) so it's not terrible but could be better.

Quick fact sheet of U of Maryland

http://www.des.umd.edu/os/rest/lead.html

MSDS for lead based solder - how about the length of that link?

http://www.kester.com/MSDS/USA%20and%20Canada/English/Bar%20Solder%20and%20Metals/MSDS%20Lead%20Solder%20US%20(31Jul03).pdf

And another

http://www.multicircuits.com/pcb/resource_documents/hasl.pdf


It does not have a DOT shipping regulation (49CFR172.101) - meaning no HAZMAT designation. Lead however will be a product of it's constituants.

What does all this mean?

Don't swallow it, breath it or take a bath in it. According to the MSDS the worst of it is when it is ingested or inhaled. There is a limit given on the amount. According to the second MSDS sheet Skin Contact and Skin Absorption are not routes into the body.

So from the sounds of it - dropping components into the boards shouldn't hurt things but make sure they wash their hands afterwords. If you're worried about it (and who wouldn't be? Hey they're kids you gotta worry) have them wear gloves and keep them away when you are soldering.

I do have access to some of this information and I also know where to find it so if you need more info please let me know and I'll see if I can help.

AL

[Eddie V]

Do resperators protect from breathing in lead or is a well ventilated area the only safe place to solder.

[Dirk_Hendrik]

And I know 80 yr old electronics wizzes still running around in perfect health.... I'ts not the Lead that's harmful. It's the lead oxide that's so poisonous and indeer accumulates. The easiest solution remains to wash your hands after soldering and before putting em in your nose. Something which I do anyway since soldering as well as the nose following tend to make my hands sticky. With a youngster one should pay some more attention indeed I guess. Especially if that means that a healty tweaker in the make stays interested. That's worth something too.

By the way.

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.


OT
Brian,
i've got some beatiful stuff in the make to come your way

[StephenGiles]

Probably better than drinking the Roman water!!
Stephen

[gez]

I still make it a habit to always solder with gloves on and wash my hands after I'm done especially before I cook/eat

Ditto!  I wear a latex glove on the hand which holds the solder.  Not so much for the lead thing (I use lead-free), more to do with rosin - some people develop allergic reaction over the years and if you're sensitive to such things it's best to play safe. 

If I had the room I'd use an extractor too as I tend to develop a cough after soldering for long periods...open window and controlled breathing is better than nothing I suppose! 

[wampcat1]

And I know 80 yr old electronics wizzes still running around in perfect health.... I'ts not the Lead that's harmful. It's the lead oxide that's so poisonous and indeer accumulates. The easiest solution remains to wash your hands after soldering and before putting em in your nose. Something which I do anyway since soldering as well as the nose following tend to make my hands sticky. With a youngster one should pay some more attention indeed I guess. Especially if that means that a healty tweaker in the make stays interested. That's worth something too.

By the way.

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.


OT
Brian,
i've got some beatiful stuff in the make to come your way

Sounds good sir! Thank ya much!

[Mark Hammer]

The classic "lead thing" arose, I believe with lead-based paint used on cribs.  Kids would gnaw on the sides of their cribs and ingest the paint.  Lead is NOT good for developing nervous systems. 

Touching it and eating are, in principle, two different things, except that even when young children have lost the desire to shove objects intheir mouth, they still make a habit of sticking their fingers in their mouths without any washing going on between when they touch stuff (whether on the work bench, the garbage can, or the bathroom tissue) and when the fingers hit the mouth.

Beyond this, touching something, and having it be transferred to one's skin in quantities sufficient to be potentially harmful if transferred from finger to lips, is another thing.  My wife works in a lab where she measures things in parts per millions daily, so we tend to be a little sensitive about such things in our household.

My initial response, though, is to say that touching parts and helping daddy is fine (heck, may even transfer enough knowledge to avoid potentially MORE dangerous hazards later in life), but helping and washing your hands after is better.

[Paul Marossy]

I'd personally would be more concerned with kind of crap is in the air that I'm breathing more than touching a piece of solder...

[bioroids]

Is regular soap ok for removing the lead or is needed something stronger?

I seem to have developed an allergic skin reaction to the fumes when soldering for too long

Miguel

[vdm]

Firstly I will say, I too wash my hands immediately after soldering just to be on the safe side.
I do however think that because lead is alloyed with tin it is not the same as having a stick of lead.
Being bonded together the two metals do not want to separate, and as such makes the lead less poisonous to humans.

On the other hand I agree the lead oxide gas created when soldering is very harmful to health.
My room has a ceiling fan and 2 windows, but I still wish it had more ventilation.

I've recently finished my first year of medical school, and if it hasn't done anything else, it's made me a lot more paranoid about... well... just about everything

trent

[brett]

Hi.

The classic "lead thing" arose, I believe with lead-based paint used on cribs.  Kids would gnaw on the sides of their cribs and ingest the paint.  

Unfortuneately, lead oxide has a sweet taste, so kids loved eating lead oxide paints.  Some kids would chew the paint off the whole verandah! (porch?) When you consider the amount of exposure in this activity, it's not surprising that some kids have been developmentally delayed by lead.

I once renovated an old house painted with lead paints, and found out a bit about lead exposure.  In the 110F heat of outback Australia I found facemasks unuseable when romoving paint.  So I breathed a LOT of dust, including dust from lead paint.  I was greatly reassured by a blood test that revealed that I only had about 7 ug/dL, or 1/3 of the max recommended level for adults here in Australia.  As the doctor explained: even if you breathe it in, 90 to 99% will probably come back out your nose or mouth.  

So I suspect that eating lead oxide is greater hazard than breathing it, and so kids who want to stick stuff in their mouth should be kept well away from lead and anything else with heavy metals.

This web page might be helpful if you consider getting a blood test:
http://www.health.ri.gov/lead/family/leadleve.php
cheers

[Steben]

As the doctor explained: even if you breathe it in, 90 to 99% will probably come back out your nose or mouth.

Phewww, that's good news. Does that count for solder fumes too? Still, it's time for me to change solder to "leadless regardless 

It's funny, after you become a parent, just about anything in your house becomes potentially dangerous!

Especially the kid itself, Paul! 

[Joecool85]

Where can you get leadless solder?  I've noticed silver solder on a few websites, some list that they have lead, others only say about the silver content....

[PharaohAmps]

I've been soldering for almost twenty years, and a recent blood test showed no significant amount of lead in my system.  When you melt solder, very little lead goes up in smoke.  Most of that gas / vapor is the flux contained in the solder.  Want to prove it to yourself?  Buy a solder pot and bar solder, like board houses use for wave / flow solder machines.  I used to have a job dipping 4/0 copper wires in a solder pot to tin the ends, and trust me, that solder goes from solid bar to liquid with nary a wisp of funky stuff.

That said, the fumes created by some of the fluxes we use can be quite irritating if not outright harmful.  I use rosin-core solder for chassis-mount parts (jacks, switches, etc.) and no-clean solder for my boards.  The rosin fumes are stinky but bearable, but the no-clean flux makes me ill if I'm exposed to it for long.  I recently installed a custom-made vent system in my shop (by custom-made, I mean I made it) and it's helped a lot.  All it does is suck the air away from the benches and into a manifold, which is then vented outside.

As for your kids helping out in the shop, that's awesome.  My dad and I used to put together Heathkits when I was ten, and I'll always remember those times fondly.  My own daughter loves to do whatever I'm doing - "daddy help," she calls it.  I agree with the previous poster, though - your kids are at much greater and more immediate risk from choking on parts than from solder.  It's very hard for something as heavy as lead to be absorbed into the bloodstream through the skin.  Nasal passages and cheeks / gums / mouth are another story (as millions of snuff-dippers and coke fiends can attest) and of course the real way to a man's blood is through his stomach.  But since kids don't wash their hands before making the Great Nasal Expedition, and love to put anything and everything in their mouths, I would hesitate to let MY child play with soldered components.

What I have done is gotten my daughter her own little pedalboard, with a few inexpensive pedals I had lying around.  I made sure all the knobs were securely screwed on, and that all the batteries were out, and gave her some patch cords.  She loves playing "pedalboard" with Daddy!  She'll plug in her pedals and unlug them for an hour while I play guitar.  It's kind of hard to choke on a Tube Screamer.

So all in all, I think your kids are probably fairly safe from massive lead poisoning IF you can keep components and their fingers out of mouths and noses.  But to me, the extra dangers inherent in playing with things as small as electronic components are too great for me to let my own daughter in my shop.  You'll take your own counsel - but my daughter is the light of my life and I won't see her hurt if I can help it.

Matt Farrow