It's possible that I ate solder. Am I going to die?

[birt]

eat braid. then sauna.

[Skruffyhound]

eat braid. then sauna.

LOL

Seriously, get a grip! We all used to have lead water pipes not that long ago.
It takes a lot of abuse to get the human body to react adversely. In Isaac Newtons day one of the tests for heavy metals was to lick them and see what they tasted like. OK he did spend a couple of years staring at a blank wall in Cambridge (I think) but he still bounced back to revolutionize (then) modern physics.
Fair enough to ask though. In my opinion (I am not a doctor) you would have to munch your way through quite a few spools before anything would show up in medical tests as I understand that it's just not that easy to absorb in the short term.
You probably absorb more lead from exhaust fumes walking down the street than you'll get out of the little cheb you may have ingested.

[petemoore]

  I think it was a 'Mad Hatter' story...but my memory is all fluxed up too.
  Something about the lead molecules not really being absorbed through the lining of the stomach, it was the fumes that made the hatter mad.
  Supposedly true story[s, using lead in the hatting process caused fumes that made the hatters mad.
  The Flux has much greater nutritional value and can be absorbed through the nostrils or taken APO...YMMV< IIUC.

[R.G.]

There is no real health danger to speak of from *one* ingestion of a pellet of tin-lead. Eat some high fiber cereal and as they say, it'll pass.

The advice from earlier is good - lead acetate is quite dangerous. Metallic lead is not terribly. Lead in plumbing is dangerous to the extent that it gets dissolved into the biologically-active forms of lead. Hard water tends to coat the insides of pipes and the mineral coating prevents further erosion of lead by the passing water. Lead pipes with *soft* water is a long term hazard. Lead bearing solder in pipes is a much smaller danger because of the lower surface area. The lead compounds in old lead-bearing paints were much more biologically active than metallic lead or tin-lead solder.

I'm guessing here, but I'd guess that you would not be able to detect the additional lead in your body by blood test or hair testing from this incident.

The metallic taste is probably residual flux.

The only good concentration of lead in your body is zero. But you take a risk that's orders of magnitude greater by simply getting in an automobile and traveling on public roads than you are experiencing from a single ingestion of one lead pellet.

We had a lab tech that used to cut off and chew on solder in the lab. He is still alive to the best of my knowledge, this 25+ years later. And he was always crazy, so who can tell about the mental effects? 

Don't sweat it. Just don't make it a habit.

[Quackzed]

Supposedly true story[s, using lead in the hatting process caused fumes that made the hatters mad.

Van gogh is supposed to have used paints high in lead content, and i've heard theories about some of his erratic behavior being due to lead poisoning as well..
so if you feel some compultion to paint....

[amptramp]

  I think it was a 'Mad Hatter' story...but my memory is all fluxed up too.
  Something about the lead molecules not really being absorbed through the lining of the stomach, it was the fumes that made the hatter mad.
  Supposedly true story[s, using lead in the hatting process caused fumes that made the hatters mad.
  The Flux has much greater nutritional value and can be absorbed through the nostrils or taken APO...YMMV< IIUC.

I had always heard that this was from the use of mercury.  A wikipedia entry says:

"Although the name "Mad Hatter" was undoubtedly inspired by the phrase "as mad as a hatter", there is some uncertainty as to the origins of this phrase. As mercury was used in the process of curing pelts used in some hats, it was impossible for hatters to avoid inhaling the mercury fumes given off during the hatmaking process. Hatters and mill workers often suffered mercury poisoning as residual mercury vapor caused neurological damage including confused speech and distorted vision; hatmaking was the main trade in Stockport, near where Carroll grew up. It was not unusual then for hatters to appear disturbed or mentally confused; many died early as a result of mercury poisoning. However, the Mad Hatter does not exhibit the symptoms of mercury poisoning, which include "excessive timidity, diffidence, increasing shyness, loss of self-confidence, anxiety, and a desire to remain unobserved and unobtrusive."[1]"

Lead poisoning had always been associated with painters and in many cultures, painters were among the artists who were more likely to be gay.  One effect of lead poisoning leads to damaged nerves controlling the wrist muscles, which led to gays being called "limp wristed" in the past.

[Quackzed]

so, eating solder probably won't hurt you, but it may make you ... gay?

[MikeH]

Well, this is a turn in this thread that I definitely didn't see coming...

[anchovie]

So, a friend of mine likes to repeatedly lick and kiss the solder side of his particularly neat perf builds. Is he in any danger of poisoning?

Sure...a friend...

*coughperflovercough*

[Ice-9]

I eat these at a rate of 10 a day , the little silver blobs are infact solder. It's done me no harm, i'm told i will be realeased from the padded cell one day.

I think you'll be ok. but try not to eat anymore.

[zombiwoof]

When I was a kid (many years ago), my brother and I got hold of some mercury, and we rubbed it with our fingers on coins to make them "shiny".  Imagine my horror many years later when I see TV reports of spilled mercury in a school or something, they evacuate the school and guys in HazMat suits are sent in to deal with the little spill!.  I haven't died yet, but I sure wish I had known about the dangers of that stuff when I was young!

Funny thing, though, when the temperature goes up my head starts to turn red!

Al

[frank_p]

Eeehh...  Audiomime, are you there...     

[Skruffyhound]

Yeah I can remember playing with mercury when I was a kid too. Who knows what the cumulative effects of all this poisonous stuff are, would I have grown up to be an astrophysicist if I'd had a poison free life or just a neurotic introvert afraid to get my hands dirty and try new things out.

[GtrmanMoe]

When I was a kid (many years ago), my brother and I got hold of some mercury, and we rubbed it with our fingers on coins to make them "shiny".  Imagine my horror many years later when I see TV reports of spilled mercury in a school or something, they evacuate the school and guys in HazMat suits are sent in to deal with the little spill!.  I haven't died yet, but I sure wish I had known about the dangers of that stuff when I was young!

Funny thing, though, when the temperature goes up my head starts to turn red!

Al

That, sir, is truly funny. (As is most of the rest of the lot.) However, having worked for in the environmental industry for many years, I've seen my fair share of mercury spills, and participated in a great many emergency cleanups of mercury. The real danger of mercury is that it vaporizes at room temperature and inhalation of the vapors results in direct absorption into the bloodstream. We did, in fact, enter every mercury spill in full poly-tyvek suits and respirators with special mercury cartridges.

I really laughed at your "thermometer" head, as most of the spills we dealt with were from broken hospital grade thermometers, as well as blood pressure machines.

[G. Hoffman]

Up through the 1700's or so, it was considered a delicacy to drink mercury and they used lead as a seasoning for food.  Sure, they had shorter life spans, but they also ate a lot more than a little blob of solder. 

I wouldn't worry too much.


Gabriel

[AudioMime]

Eeehh...  Audiomime, are you there...     

Haha, thanks for all of the reassurance, my paranoia supersedes me 

And how I ate some..... I may never know.

[philbinator1]

Well since we're sharing mercury tales...

My dad was a gold miner on the south island's west coast of NZ when I was a kid...he used to separate the gold
from the gravel/dirt by some chemical process...sulphuric acid and mercury were involved I think, it used to make
this awful, stinky, red smoke.  No mask/eye protection of course (welcome to the 'Coast...think of a more civil version
of Deliverance).  He had these little vials of mercury lying around downstairs, and once or thrice I got some out and
played with it on the carpet, I loved how it didn't absorb into anything.  Funny, cos when I was a kid I was outgoing,
and now I definitely don't like being the centre of attention.  Pretty ironic for a lead guitarist, eh? 

Now isn't it nice to share?    

EDIT:  Forgot to say, you guys are friggen' hilarious.  I was chuckling to myself the whole post.

[markeebee]

Is this thread just some clever PlayStation marketing ploy?

[R.G.]

That, sir, is truly funny. (As is most of the rest of the lot.) However, having worked for in the environmental industry for many years, I've seen my fair share of mercury spills, and participated in a great many emergency cleanups of mercury. The real danger of mercury is that it vaporizes at room temperature and inhalation of the vapors results in direct absorption into the bloodstream. We did, in fact, enter every mercury spill in full poly-tyvek suits and respirators with special mercury cartridges.

Then there's the lady who dropped and broke a compact fluorescent bulb. Knowing in a general way that it had mercury in it and knowing that this required some special clean up to get things right, she called the state's environmental agency to get pointers. A long saga made short, she wound up with a hazmat team there to do the cleanup and a $2000 bill for the cleanup.

Thereby making sure that enlightened people DO NOT report mercury spills, because there is in effect, a $2000 (depends on locale, obviously) fine for reporting it. What's wrong with this bit of social engineering by a government? 

Up through the 1700's or so, it was considered a delicacy to drink mercury and they used lead as a seasoning for food.  Sure, they had shorter life spans, but they also ate a lot more than a little blob of solder. 

Lead acetate's formal commonly used name is "sugar of lead".  Bon appetite. 

[fpaul]

I had a chance encounter in a bar with a guy who once had lead poisioning.  He had a job cleaning the smokestack at a smelter.  They hired a bunch of guys, lined them up with sledgehammers, then they would take turns running around the smokestack beating it with the hammer then go to the end of the line again.  He said one of the symptoms was uncontrolled rage, so if you find yourself beating the wife or dog more than usual please go to the doctor.