kenneth scharf wrote:

Jeff Spidle wrote:

hmmm, I have recently had the same discussion with my XYL, we have a 1 yr
old.

My self and another NASA trained ham, N9AEP, just completed teaching a
soldering class for our ham club, Schaumburg Amateur Radio Club.

The EU is going to require all soldering to be Pb free in 2004, I believe
that all US manufacturers will be required to do so in '06. I'm sure
I'll be
corrected on the dates.


The reason for banning lead solder isn't that it is dangerous to people
using it,
but rather that old electronic equipment ends up in landfill and so does
the lead.
Auto batteries require special disposal for this reason. The idea is to
ban the use
of lead in all products (where possible) to eliminate disposal problems.

But just how good IS lead free solder? I guess it DOES work well in
plumbing
where it has been in use for many years.

If lead is insoluble in water, then WHY isn't it used in plumbing? The
small
amount that it IS soluble is the danger. Guess the Romans went mad due
to their
use of lead pipes (that's where the word plumber comes from, the latin
for lead
is plumbum, and the atomic symbol for lead is Pb). Could be the lead
pipes were
the reason for the fall of the empire?


They were poisoning themselves with lead, but it wasn't from the
plumbing. The water that was carried to Rome from the aqueducts was
extremely hard, and a layer of calcium formed on the interior of the
pipes just about immediately after being put in use.

Where they got their lead was from storage containers for wine. They
used lead containers for this! I believe they credited the lead with
preservative powers. The acidic wine pulled a lot of lead out ot the
container and into the gullets of the drinkers.

- Mike -