LEAD POISONING and pain.

tinsolder · September 21, 2010, 10:50:55 AM

hi all benders newbies and electronic geeks out there.
i highly recommend a good filter to suck all the fumes while soldering. a cigar-box with a computer-fan (12V) and some piece of filtermat will do the trick. also instead of "lick your fingers and poke around": don't lick them! really . use a wet sponge to wet your fingers instead. and wash your hands after work.
i got a awful illness and got my hair analysed. and.. high lead, high cadmium etc.. all the good stuff from the pcb's and the traces on them. hard thing to get them out of the body again. don't forget: mostly all the older electronic stuff can be poisonous. also the board itself contains phenolic stuff.
i bent stuff now for years, and now all of a sudden have to say: by-by.
take care all out there. specially the newbies.
cheerio.

Gordonjcp · September 21, 2010, 02:13:57 PM

Were you actually *eating* printed circuit boards?

It's pretty much impossible to get significant amounts of lead, tin, copper or cadmium into your body from working on electronic equipment, unless you're actually grinding up scrap video recorders and snorting lines of the dust.

tinsolder · September 21, 2010, 05:31:01 PM

no,no i didn't eat them . true is i did a lot of salvaging parts from old electronic stuff. and it's not proofed all the poison comes from the electronics. but i think many people dont't care about the stuff they are handling with. like george lazenbleep who tried to fix the cut in his hand with glue..

Gordonjcp · September 22, 2010, 08:11:31 PM

Glueing wounds shut is pretty common these days. You get special medical-grade cyanoacrylate for it, but plain ordinary superglue will work just fine in an emergency.

noiseybeast · September 23, 2010, 04:18:42 AM

Quote from: Gordonjcp on September 22, 2010, 08:11:31 PM
Glueing wounds shut is pretty common these days. You get special medical-grade cyanoacrylate for it, but plain ordinary superglue will work just fine in an emergency.

A friend of mine caught her nipple ring on a fixture in the shower, ripping off the nipple almost completely. Tney removed the piercing, glued the nipple back together and gave it 2 or 3 stitches to be sure the glue held and sent her on her way. As far as I know that beast still has the nipple.

Ciderfeks · September 23, 2010, 09:58:23 PM

Quote from: noiseybeast on September 23, 2010, 04:18:42 AM
A friend of mine caught her nipple ring on a fixture in the shower, ripping off the nipple almost completely. Tney removed the piercing, glued the nipple back together and gave it 2 or 3 stitches to be sure the glue held and sent her on her way. As far as I know that beast still has the nipple.

Sweet Jesus! I have got everything clenched that it's possible to clench having read that...

noiseybeast · September 26, 2010, 04:57:49 AM

Quote from: Ciderfeks on September 23, 2010, 09:58:23 PM

Sweet Jesus! I have got everything clenched that it's possible to clench having read that...

Hearing about it wasn't so bad, what was bad was when we went camping and she busted it out and started cleaning the thing while we're all sitting around drinking.

electoyd · September 27, 2010, 12:40:40 PM

Tin solder you are right if your using lead solder or playing with old circuit boards, do be careful. I never lick my fingers and put them on the circuit board and always use a proper mask for soldering and make sure you wash your hands after using the solder as you can absorb lead through your skin, the problem with heavy metals is they are really difficult to get out of your system.

When soldering (using leaded solder) i have a tendancy to want to get close to what i'm doing, i do worry about the fumes though and with a mask you can be right above the soldering iron and it doesn't matter.

think it always pays to heed someones warning, better safe than sorry and all that its not called lead poisoning for nothing, this article on wikipedia i think shows how dangerous it can be.
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning#Acute_poisoning

@ tin solder this link is for something that helps you get lead and stuff out of your system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelation_therapy

Circuitbenders · September 27, 2010, 01:31:41 PM

Just split this into a new thread as it was getting a bit off topic.

Gordonjcp · September 27, 2010, 06:07:13 PM

You can't get enough lead into your system from handling solder and components to do you any real damage. It *is* worth keeping your work area well-lit and well-ventilated, and not eating where you're working. You really would have to be eating blobs of solder all the time to get lead poisoning though.

electoyd · September 28, 2010, 04:27:56 PM

dont really want to find out the hard way about lead poisoning and how much it takes to KO me, think your more at danger when actually soldering because it is natural to lean in close when working with these small areas of circuit and you cant help but inhale it and the thing about lead and other heavy metals is they have an accumulative build up, so you dont get rid of them and they just keep building up. I'm guessing alot of the folk that come on here are young (ish!) so i'm sure they would like to preserve their health and good on tin solder for mentioning it and trying to save us going through the same pain he has.

But yeah really important to not eat, smoke where you are soldering and lots of light is a must, get a good mask also, i use one that is made for airbrushing and it is ok to work with it on and it saves having to deal with the constant wisps of smoke. I use leaded solder, not sure what others are using, dunno if there is the same need for non leaded (yuk) but its crap anyway. Solder fans are ok but you have to be close for them to be affective, have to say though its amazing the shit that builds up on the carbon filter of a solder fan makes you realise what could be going in your lungs, it scared me into using the airbrush mask.

Gordonjcp · September 29, 2010, 09:52:07 AM

Lead-free solder isn't worth bothering with. You need to use a much hotter iron, and it doesn't really "stick" effectively. A large percentage of my work is repairing intermittent faults caused by cracked, brittle lead-free solder joints. Medical, avionics and military equipment is exempt from lead-free regulations, interesting that...

electoyd · September 29, 2010, 11:38:55 AM

yeah if you want your equipment to last dump the unleaded, if it aint good enough for the military why should we use it. We just gotta look after ourselves whilst usin it

druzz · October 16, 2010, 04:19:54 PM

the most dangerous thing i am dealing with personally when it comes to circuit bending is ear damage . specially with bent mini- amps , i think i am getting freaquencies out that could be harmfull if not used wisely .

once i cut miself while diiging a beat-tv on the sidewalk , i guess its better to wear gloves when ripping off a piece of pcb in the trash .

Gordonjcp · October 16, 2010, 06:49:44 PM

My old high-school technical studies teacher (hello, Mr Willoughby) drummed into us in 1st year that when you cut metal, you clean off any burr to leave a safe edge.

TV and VCR metal components are stamped out in a big press, and never deburred. I've cut myself literally to the bone on a bit of VCR chassis before.