Soldering Fumes

Hi, Red. Assuming you're using rosin-based flux core solder, your main problem will be the flux fumes.

Most healthy people don't have much physical reaction to rosin fumes. However, people with respiratory problems do report sensitivity and irritation.

I wouldn't recommend soldering in an area where children are present. Given that, you shouldn't need a respirator at all unless someone has respiratory problems.

For home use, I'd suggest getting a 4" muffin fan, and placing a square of air conditioner filter foam in front of it. Place it on your bench near your soldering iron, power it up when you're working, and have the fan pulling air away from you. Don't have noticeable airflow on solder joints while they're cooling, because they will tend to produce poor solder joints. The solder fillet has to cool evenly. Replace the filter when it starts getting sticky with flux residue.

If you're using organic or no-clean flux, the answer would depend on your flux.

Good luck Chris

I disagree. As most people will be using lead based solders for handsoldering there is serious hazard from the lead. The lead vapour you inhale will accumulate in your body and never leave. So for the occasional soldering this isn't much of an issue, but for serious hobby work I would recommend not inhaling the fumes.

I have no references for how long it will take you to develop lead posioning, but you can always search the net.

Stay healthy, Igor

Igor's right -- there is some risk of absorbing lead during repeated intensive exposure to solder fumes. However, as the MSDS for Radio Shack 60/40 rosin core solder suggests, the main problem is the flux:

Let's assume there are no kids or pregnant women in the work area. Given that, normal good room ventilation plus a small muffin fan on the workbench should be enough for a level of safety I'd be very comfortable with, both for the flux smoke and any possible small amounts of lead oxide in the air.

Your results may vary. It kind of depends on the tradeoffs you want to make, and the level of safety you're comfortable with.

And because of the way the OP question was phrased, I forgot to mention the most important thing -- wash your hands and clean up your work area well afterwards. You can ingest far more lead by accidentally swallowing a tiny fleck of solder left on your hand along with your lunch sandwich than you would breathe in from a lifetime of working with solder. And if you get that fleck from the workroom floor to your shoe sole, and walk it upstairs where the baby happens to get it in its mouth, you've done a very bad thing.

Cheers Chris

I worked for Microdyne for years. Some of the assemblers ahd been soldering daily for over 20 years and there were no traces of lead in their blood tests that the company required every six months.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

redbrickhat wrote: > Questions: >

Respirator ? Fumes? You mean aroma ! Almost as good as bacon, better than coffee (sorry, I drink Coke NOT Pepsi). Lead in the blood? Don't chew on the solder.

GG

That is an important point. You don't hear anything about people soldering and suffering from lead poisoning, so one has to assume that it has never been a serious problem.

Michael

Years ago I worked in a lab where a toxicologist came to collaborate with the director on a project. One of his previous projects was to study soldering fumes, and (if I recall correctly) he said that lead was not the worst problem... there was something else more worrisome in the fumes. Not sure, but it might have been cadmium or something that was an impurity.

Best regards,

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

Home of DaqGen, the FREEWARE signal generator

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Sounds like FUD.

Puckdropper

--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

Says who?

Exactly how much vaporized lead is given off by liquid solder?

I wouldn't be suprised if the number is insignificant when compared to the amount of lead you absorb when TOUCHING the solder with moist skin.

For those who fear for their safety when soldering, they shouldn't be afraid of lead vapor, instead they should be terrified of touching the toxic metal, and even more terrified of touching their lips with contaminated fingers. Even worse is the solder sponge in your soldering iron stand (that sponge is filled with corroded solder with chemically active toxic lead compounds.)

Do your fingers have a metallic taste after you've been handling solder? If so, then you're tasting the lead compounds as they go into your mouth and into your body.

PS I see no reason why rosin smoke would transport any lead oxide at all. Rosin evaporates, then re-condenses into extremely tiny beads. Rosin smoke is a kind of finely powdered rosin. Lead oxide doesn't evaporate. If there's anything in the air, it would be lead vapor coming directly from the metal and not transported by the rosin smoke.

((((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( (o) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))))))) William J. Beaty

Research Engineer UW Chem Dept, Bagley Hall RM74 snipped-for-privacy@chem.washington.edu Box 351700, Seattle, WA 98195-1700 ph:206-543-6195 fax:206-685-8665

Why do you thnk that lead isn't in the smoke? It turns out that lead is quite volatile when heated. (All metals are volatile to some degree, even at ambient temps; lead is just a lot more volatile than, say, iron.) Old pottery kilns that were used to fire lead-based glazes get lead fumes saturated into the firebrick, to the point that such kilns may be discarded as unsalvageable for modern lead-free work. Sure, the firing temperature was a lot higher than solder temps, but they were starting with lead oxide, not the raw metal. And they got way more contaminated than the tiny amount needed to mess up our brains.

Best regards,

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

Home of DaqGen, the FREEWARE signal generator

You solder at the alloy's plastic state, which isn't hot enough to boil off any lead. If the lead was boiling off the percentages of the metals in the alloy would change, making rework require even more heat.

Industry studies have been done for over 30 years, including analyzing air samples that didn't show any trace of lead, but as has been pointed out, the way you handle solder and how often you wash your hands is VERY important.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

liquid state I think. it merely has to evaporate, not boil.

Bye. Jasen

I used to chew on leaded solder when I was about 7-10 years old (I got an early start in electronics, until the dark side of computers seduced me when I was 12) because it "tasted nice". Until my uncle told me it was poisonous. Not sure if it did me any harm or not. mensa think i'm above average intellect, but judging by the intellect of many people i've met, that's nothing to party about. Am I slightly crazy? yes I think I am... but I like it, I have a vivid imagination and the voices sometimes give me some great ideas. If anything I think I'm socially/emotionally retarded, but I think i've always been that way, although people tell me i'm a "people person" i'm not, I like to sit indoors and watch re-runs of futurama.

My point is...

is...

um..

you know I dont think I had one.

Mark

So, you know more than the entire electronics industry? I don't think so. If the solder melts to a full liquid state it would be very hard to handle. There is a plastic state between solid and liquid where it will flow and conform to the connection. In liquid form, it would just drip off.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

There seems to be a lot of that around! ;-)

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

The important value is the vapor pressure versus temperature. If the vapor pressure of lead i solder alloy is equal to the local atmospheric pressure, it boils. If less, it evaporates. If very much less, it hardly evaporates, at all. I haven't found the chart of lead in solder vapor pressure versus temperature, but I am willing to bet that at 600 F (my soldering temperature) the vapor pressure is less than a millionth of atmospheric.

John Popelish wrote: > jasen wrote: > > On 2006-09-14, Michael A. Terrell wrote: > >

In 1991 I was diagnosed with MS. Part of the testing process included heavy metals testing as the symptoms are similar to heavy metals poisoning and since I had been working with solders for 25 years already... I also built a small pipe organ and the pipes in that were

50/50 tin/lead and had been handling pipes as well as solders. Bottom line, no problem with lead at all.

As I said earlier, don't chew on the solder (but I've held it in my teeth in the past).

GG

Hmm - you've never needed a third hand and held the solder in your teeth?

Cheers! Rich