Henry Gardiner wrote:

In my production engineering job I would routinely hold
my breath and stick my head in over the solder wave in the
wave solder machine. Large amounts of soldering fumes would
come up from that molten commercial-grade organic solder.
After pulling my head out, I'd exhale. One time I did this
maybe 20 times a day for a week in the pursuit of soldering
refinements.
Aggravated by poor sleep from a change in the work
routine, my health went down hill quickly. My ankles were
puffing up, possibly indicating the onset of liver disease.

I got the message. I stopped exposing myself to the
airborne lead and flux particles. It took several months
for the swelling of the ankles to go away.
Workers at the factory would set up muffin fans to suck
the hand-soldering fumes away from them. This is a good
idea. Otherwise, the fumes seek out the rising column of
air around one's body and are thus breathed in directly.
Also, most people lean over the work while soldering.
Doing soldering next to muffin fan and a cracked
down-wind window should readily resolve the problem for the
most cautious hobbyist solderer and family members.
Regarding someone's comment about putting solder in his
mouth: Remember the historians' speculations about the
contribution of lead wine vessels toward the fall of the
Roman empire. Also, I can taste regular spool solder. That
means I'm dissolving something from it.

Henry

Did you have high levels of lead in your blood? The place I worked
sent the assemblers for routine blood tests, and never found anything.
We didn't have a wave solder machine, but we did have three reflow ovens
that were vented through the roof.


--
We now return you to our normally scheduled programming.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida