Lead free solder - exposed in a UK national newspaper

Which is, in turn, about the same level of threat to the environment, as lead in solder ... d;~}

Arfa

Invalid link.

Long before "flux chars" (and no, not all fluxes would be the same), it would liquefy (change phase) and volatize (evaporate in our atmosphere).

Other fluxes would behave differently as well.

The vapor pressure of a vat of lead at 500 C would certainly have a specific vapor pressure.

Are you sure that the Lead / Tin alloy that solder is would have the same vapor pressure?

Also, there are no irons for the electronics industry I am aware of that operate at 932F.

The search engine string "lead toxicology" should help find the rest if the interesting information.

Wow, that was amazingly informative considering the moderate length of the article.

I'm very concerned about mercury, having had all my mercury (dentists call it "amalgam") fillings replaced, and as a result noticing huge improvements in my ability to mentally focus and concentrate on tasks for extended periods.

I've been adverse to fluorescent lamps for a long time, not just because of the mercury. But last year, I read that CFL bulbs have only about 20 mg of mercury each, and due to the power savings, even if the mercury from the new CFL bulbs were released into the environment, it be less than that of a coal-fired power plant while generating the difference in power between a CFL and its incandescent equivalent.

Following that, I was advised that the best ambient lighting to have for doing digital image editing was 6500K (daylight- balanced) fluorescent lights, so I decided to give it a try. That got me hooked, and now practically every bulb around here is a CFL! And I am _wondering_, was that info regarding the mercury savings at the power plant actually for real, or was it mostly mind-control (marketing, "public relations" type of stuff)? It's just too easy for corporations to spin the facts to their marketing advantage, and then spread the deceptions into the media, to be later passed around by people ... er, like me! I am suspicious.

The next part of the story is that one day I was changing a CFL bulb to try out a different brand for comparison, and I dropped it about 5 feet onto a carpeted floor, and ... wait for it ... IT BROKE! I looked down, realized what I just did, and laughed to myself that in spite of all my concern, I'd just given myself my dose of mercury. I assume that the mercury in the bulb is mostly in vapor form, and that the rest of it evaporated and I suppose I ended up breathing at least some of it. I didn't find any little drops of mercury anywhere.

But at least it was I, the one who chose to purchase the bulb, who was affected the most, and first, with the consequences. There's good justice in that, which I fully accept. I'll be a lot more careful in the future.

I am using CFLs for now, hoping that there will be a better daylight-balanced choice (LEDs...) by the time the bulbs need changing. And also, I hope that by that time, I will be able to give the CFLs to a recycling center.

Jay Ts

these are great, they look fantastic, unity power factor, dimmable, and last 50,000 hours.

Cheers Terry

And only 650 lumens, which is less than a 60 watt incandescent (890 lumens). I'm using 4 27 watt (100 watt equivalent) 6500K CFLs to light my work room, so to replace them with those LED bulbs, it would cost ... oh, forget it, I don't even want to do the math! No way.

Oh, and the LR6 bulbs are spotlights, which is a no-go just by itself. And they aren't daylight balanced (5500-6500K), another definite no-go.

I think it's still going to be a while until 100-watt equivalent, daylight balanced LED bulbs are available with an "ouchless" startup cost, and I'm not holding my breath waiting. Just hoping that it will happen, and won't be awfully long.

Jay Ts

and how many lumens come out of your fixture with the 890 lumen lamp in it?

CFLs are terrible for that. they are measured in the light sphere sans fixture, which can make a tremendous difference. easily 20-30%.

they are not bulbs. They are light fittings with integral lamps. that alters the C-B calcs substantially.

its a total cost of ownership thing. efficiency wise they pay for themselves (I have seen the ROI calcs but cant recall them) in a few years.

the main market is for people who dont change their own lightbulbs (eg companies) where it costs a lot to get a single lamp changed, so they often get a sparky to change all lamps whether or not they need it, eg annually or bi-annually. And if its in say a tall atrium and you need scissor lifts, these things pay themselves off in less than the lifgetime of a single incandescent, CFL or flouro.

Cheers Terry

The State of Maine did some research on the handling of broken CFL lamps to avoid mercury poisoning. Basically, let the mercury vapor dissipate before cleaning up the mess. See:

I did some Googling for how much mercury is found in CFL lamps. The numbers vary from 2.5mg to 10.0mg depending on size. Several manufacturers advertise low or reduced mercury content in their CFL bulbs. Methinks 20mg is far too high, unless it's a very large bulb.

You might find this analysis of interest:

"Mercury is a toxic metal associated with contamination of water, fish, and food supplies, and can lead to adverse health affects. A CFL bulb generally contains an average of 5 mg of mercury (about one-fifth of that found in the average watch battery, and less than 1/100th of the mercury found in an amalgam dental filling). A power plant will emit 10mg of mercury to produce the electricity to run an incandescent bulb compared to only 2.4mg of mercury to run a CFL for the same time. The net benefit of using the more energy efficient lamp is positive, and this is especially true if the mercury in the fluorescent lamp is kept out of the waste stream when the lamp expires."

Thanks for that, Jeff.

I really wish I'd read that before breaking the bulb! ;-)

At the time, I just did what seemed like the best thing to do, but I only got it about half right.

Nice trick, to use duct tape instead of a vaccuum cleaner. Now I need to put a new vacuum cleaner on my shopping list. Thing is, I have 2 of them, and I don't remember which one I used to clean it up! I assumed that because I didn't see any mercury, I was just vacuuming up a few tiny bits of glass. Bummer.

It was huge. I'm not sure now, but it might have been a 150 watt equiv.

Fortunately, I've already been through the heavy metal detox thing, and know how to flush the stuff out of my body pretty quickly. (As in a couple of years.) Metallic mercury isn't so bad, as compared to methyl mercury. I was amazed at how quickly I started feeling better after I had my mercury fillings removed.

Jay Ts

Whenever I see references to amalgam fillings in this context, I always wonder just how 'real' the improvement in perceived well-being is. I don't doubt that you feel better now you have had them removed, but I really wonder how much of that is because you *expected* to feel better, because that's why you were having them removed ? Kind of like the double-blind placebo tests, when they are evaluating the efficacy of new pharmaceutical drugs. Have you located any studies as to whether people who have amalgam fillings actually have a higher level of mercury in their bodies than would be expected for their given location / lifestyle, and did these levels actually reduce, or at least stop going up, once the amalgam had been removed ? I'm interested to know, not least because I have an amalgam filling in just about every 4 - 8 tooth, both sides, top and bottom, and have had for 40 years or more since I was a kid, and they were the 'norm'. Although my memory, particularly short-term, is not as good as it was, otherwise, I would have rated my health as 'OK', and not any worse than I would expect for a mid 50's man with my location and lifestyle.

Arfa

Loadsa mercury in my mouth too, but I was told by my dentist that *more* would be released into the body and absorbed during the process of having the fillings drilled out and replaced, than would be released by simply leaving them in place. Folks our age are going to die of *something* in two or three decades, regardless. I think that mercury, or lead, or whatever-other-heavy-metal poisoning is the least of our worries.

Cheers, Pete.

We are disposable containers for our genes.

I think there is a quite reasonable argument that with our bodies having (by design) a limited life if they are not knackerd and contaminated by the time we die we have to some degree wasted them.

I wonder, should we ever be able to extend our lives to hundreds of years, what that might mean for our lifestyle. Living extremely healthy and avoiding pollution of all kinds, perhaps?

Mark

Y'er welcome. I hadn't even thought of exposure issues prior to reading it myself.

I use a dust mask and a broom for broken glass. I've shredded at least 2 paper vacuum cleaner bags trying to vacuum broken glass with sharp edges.

I don't think the amount of mercury involved was sufficient to justify a new vacuum cleaner. Just replace the bag and be done with it. If paranoid, clean out the vacuum cleaner with a compressed air hose, but do it outside.

Some manufacturers will identify the amount of mercury in their lamps. If you can identify the manufactory, you can lookup the mercury content. Most of it will be vaporized when you broke the bulb, so the real danger is doing the cleanup in a closed room. That's why I suggested that if it happens again, give it time for the mercury to dissipate.

Also, 5mg of Hg is a small volume thanks to the high density of mercury. At 13.6g/cm3, 5mg will be only 0.000368 ml in volume.

I've worked with large amounts of metallic mercury. Safety is always an issue but accidents do happen. When spilled, the easiest way to pickup the droplets is by first freezing the area with dry ice (frozen CO2). The mercury will harden, where it can be picked up with tweezers or a broom. When the CO2 melts, errr.... evaporates, the mercury returns to its liquid state.

Some medical details on heavy metal poisoning:

Also ensuring that a frontier is available; e.g. serious efforts at off-world colonization.

Michael

Aha! Another glaring testimony to the insipid dangers that we can expect from buying/disposing of CFLs (or electronic solder) due to MERCURY (or LEAD) which has been proven to be FATAL (...in some cases). Yes, the snipping was intentional.

:)

-Bill

"the meek shall inherit the earth"

because the brave will be out conquering the universe.

Cheers Terry

Apparently you haven't read much history. The history of exploration and colonization is liberally laced with misfits, criminals, and evil scum of varying sorts. Anyone that is successful and comfortable in the home country, is not going to go out exploring. They already have what they want, so why bother risking it on the unknown? It isn't so much bravery that inspired the age of exploration. It was the intolerance created by various despotic rulers than inspired those with nothing to lose to get out of town and go exploring. Same with those that were persecuted for religious and political reasons.

The initial explorers may by the brave and the daring, going to places where no sane person would consider living. However, those that follow will be quite different. The 2nd wave will be the tourists. Those with bigger pocket books than concern for their own safety. After that come those that can't get along with anyone, in any country, on any planet. Kinda like the moutain men and mad hermits. Next come the immigrants, that just want some different or better place than the living hell they came from. Eventually, space travel will be mundane enough for the carpetbaggers, bureaucrats, politicians, hookers, pimps, salesmen, and the rest of the trash that constitutes civilization.

indeed. one does not need to look far back in history (9am today will suffice) to discover that, on average, humans are nasty. Our "civilisation" is a pretty thin veneer, which is entirely absent in large swathes of the world.

luckily, not in my back yard :).

Anyone that is successful and comfortable in

abbrev. "people"

However unlike Earth, space is a lot bigger so it should take a lot longer to ruin it. perhaps even long enought that we'll learn to play nice, but I doubt it.

I always liked that line in Amused to Death: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll f*ck it up"

Cheers Terry