Lead free solder

[Structo]

As a union plasterer for many years we had a lot of safety meetings about various topics and materials.

The thing I remember about lead paint abatement was that it can be put into the air, like when somebody is arc welding on a beam that has lead paint.

They also said that you can have it on your clothing and expose whoever does your laundry to lead.
If it is a pregnant women or one about to become pregnant they said that was not good.
Or any young children around it.

Or anything that puts the paint dust into the air, such as grinding or sand through lead paint.

It also seems to be a material that can add up in your system.
So it must accumulate in your body and doesn't leave your system very rapidly.

I have read that soldering with lead based solder doesn't really put lead in the air but handling it can get it into your body.
And, I'm pretty sure breathing the fumes is not a healthy thing to do.
I usually hold my breath while leaning over the iron.

So those classes about lead and asbestos (which I have been around a lot) are enough to scare anybody away from working on old buildings.

[rp]

More on lead:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/us/di ... D98CAE7A63

The practice is sometimes illegal since there are federal limits on how long a company can house the tubes, which are environmentally dangerous. Each one can include up to eight pounds of lead.

Wow, that's a lot of lead. Who knew? They are heavy though, duh? We are so on our way to extinction.

[Diablo1]

More on lead:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/us/di ... D98CAE7A63

The practice is sometimes illegal since there are federal limits on how long a company can house the tubes, which are environmentally dangerous. Each one can include up to eight pounds of lead.

Wow, that's a lot of lead. Who knew? They are heavy though, duh? We are so on our way to extinction.

I believe that's 8 pounds of leaded glass, and the lead is only a tiny fraction.

[Cantplay]

I'd bet that fluorescent bulbs are more toxic inside.

John

[rp]

Don't know, it says '8 pounds of lead', a 20" CRT sure weighs a lot. They should have just sat out the mercury hazard fluorescents till LEDs became economical and we are getting there now, so it would have been less than a decade more of keeping incandescents. That's why we are doomed, we are at the point now where we can't even do right when we try.

[Tillydog]

I believe that's 8 pounds of leaded glass, and the lead is only a tiny fraction.

I can believe it's 8lbs of lead for a big CRT- the glass in the "funnel" (i.e. the bit that you can't normally see) is typically ~25 - 30% lead. (I used to work in a place making glass that was up to 80% lead.)

HOWEVER the lead (and barium and strontium, etc.) is locked into a glass, and not freely available to poison people unless it's ground up or dissolved and then eaten, and poses no hazard in handling and storage IMHO.

By contrast, the mercury vapour and heavy metal phosphors in compact fluorescent "energy saving" bulbs is released directly into the environment / your home everytime one breaks. If they did last 10 years, it might be tolerable, but the don't! (/rant)

[Diablo1]

OK, you guys are right.
Here's the total lead content in various sized CRTs.

https://www.premierinc.com/quality-safe ... n_crts.pdf

[Structo]

I certainly have resisted using the compact fluorescent bulbs.

Sure they use less power but the ones I have tried all have to warm up to achieve maximum brightness.

So for about five minutes the light output is not the equivalent of a incandescent bulb.
Especially if they are cold.
If they could do the rapid start type thing like the fluorescent light bar in my kitchen, I wouldn't be so opposed to using them.

I do have one in my computer/ music room because that one is on most of the time.

And I put a few in my garage.

What I hope is that they can get the cost down on the newer LED light bulbs, although I haven't tried any because they are about $21 each......

I have been stocking up on incandescent bulbs because they will not be available in a few years.

But what really irks me is the environmentalists that lobby for the use of CFL's but don't take into account the mercury and other heavy metals found in CFL's and how to properly dispose of them.

And while I'm on a roll, another environmental disaster in my opinion is the recycling that we have been forced into by our garbage service.

Used to be, we had one trash can and one truck would come through the neighborhood and empty it.

Now due to new regulations we have a garbage cart, a recycle cart and a yard debris cart.

So now there are three different trucks picking up and emptying the carts.

Let me get this straight, now instead of one truck we have three trucks that burn 3X the amount of fuel then before.
One takes the garbage to a plant that burns the garbage, a truck that picks up the recycle refuse and takes it to a sorting plant.
And a truck that picks up the yard debris which is taken to a composting site that once it has composted, sells it back to the consumer as a soil amendment.

How does that make environmental sense?

Sorry if this derails the thread and should be in the Garage section but I'm just keeping with the TAG tradition of derailing threads.

[rp]

FYI LEDs: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/techn ... B80A4E190B

The IP features sure are cool. Figure 2-3 more years and they'll be ready for prime time. Only oddball thinking in the article is that you are happily getting a bulb for the next 20 years - but it's constantly improving technology. It's like recommending stocking up on 2TB hard drives and you'll be all set for the next 20 years. Think I'll wait for the technology to mature and settle down before spending $300 to re-bulb the home with 40W bulbs.

And yes the mercury thing is a bummer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease Fluorescent bulbs are going by the billions into trash dumps scattered over every few miles of the planet. I was in an A/V closet once working and knocked over a jury rigged ceiling fixture leaning against the wall w/ 2 4' bulbs and found myself in a pitch black tiny closed room in a cloud of that nasty bulb dust crap, and I had to go back in and work there for the next month. I was pretty freaked. And, I don't think the switch put a dent in global warming.

BTW I got fluorescents now in euroland and the slow warm up sure makes for a dingy-depressing arrival home in winter. Blah.