4 ms·

Give me liberty (of leaded solder paste) or give me death (by breathing in lead-free flux fumes).

dathinab 4y ago
You can work with the later by proper ventilating, even in many hobby setups. Dealing with lead safely is much harder, and in a hobby setup can be assumed to be infeasible to be done correctly for nearly all people
- theodric 4y ago
  That's my problem. Utterly exhausted with safety culture overreach, as if the single most important thing possible is maximum safety, to the detriment of all other factors. Solitary confinement is very safe.
  - dathinab 4y ago
    In case of lead solder it's the problem of you also the (potential) problem of: - Spouse, Child or anyone sharing your apartment - Technicians or similar which might enter your apartment - Anyone living in your apartment after you - Anyone to which you might sell the desk, used tool and similar - In case of gross negligence you might also contaminate public transportation or e.g. a desk at a restaurant - Police/Firefighters (in case they have to enter your apartment) - ... also many young people which start soldering as a hobby are not really aware about the health risk of solder, in which case lead free solder is still a better choice. So no it's not just your problem. And it doesn't matter if you specifically handle it correctly, most hobby soldering people do not and this is a general decision which is mainly about lead in hobby use cases (there are a bunch exceptions for companies). Well and it's also about sold devices, because that also matter, children get there hand on them and there are various (sometimes surprising) ways how lead from soldering can get into the life of people using the product, instead of producing it.
kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
Leaded solder doesn't produce significant amounts of lead vapor in solder fumes. Lead-free is no less hazardous with prolonged exposure.

You can work with the later by proper ventilating, even in many hobby setups. Dealing with lead safely is much harder, and in a hobby setup can be assumed to be infeasible to be done correctly for nearly all people

theodric 4y ago
That's my problem. Utterly exhausted with safety culture overreach, as if the single most important thing possible is maximum safety, to the detriment of all other factors. Solitary confinement is very safe.
- dathinab 4y ago
  In case of lead solder it's the problem of you also the (potential) problem of: - Spouse, Child or anyone sharing your apartment - Technicians or similar which might enter your apartment - Anyone living in your apartment after you - Anyone to which you might sell the desk, used tool and similar - In case of gross negligence you might also contaminate public transportation or e.g. a desk at a restaurant - Police/Firefighters (in case they have to enter your apartment) - ... also many young people which start soldering as a hobby are not really aware about the health risk of solder, in which case lead free solder is still a better choice. So no it's not just your problem. And it doesn't matter if you specifically handle it correctly, most hobby soldering people do not and this is a general decision which is mainly about lead in hobby use cases (there are a bunch exceptions for companies). Well and it's also about sold devices, because that also matter, children get there hand on them and there are various (sometimes surprising) ways how lead from soldering can get into the life of people using the product, instead of producing it.

kevin_thibedeau 4y ago

Leaded solder doesn't produce significant amounts of lead vapor in solder fumes. Lead-free is no less hazardous with prolonged exposure.