Not at all - I'm 73 in a couple of months and I've been soldering
electronics since I was about 14 (I obtained a ham licence at 16), so 60
years is nearer the mark at a personal level. My professional work
started at the age of 21 (19, if you count my military service as a
radio mechanic) and I witnessed the start-up of Rolf Strauss' first
prototype wave soldering machine in 1954/55.
As an addendum to my earlier message, I understand that asthma
sensitisation is far more likely from pollution engendered by vehicle
exhausts and domestic heating than from colophony. Happily, I don't
suffer from asthma, but my eyes are very sensitive to pollution and they
start to stream outdoors in cities like Delhi, Cairo, Mexico City,
Bangkok etc., but they do not react when I hand solder, even without
extraction. Chronic asthma (and lung cancer), leading to emphysema, has
increased in Delhi by a factor of more than 20 times in the last 25
years, according to a report I read some time ago.
Brian
Ingemar Hernefjord (KC/EMW) wrote:
> 50 years!! So you were a child worker..
> /Ingemar
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: den 28 januari 2005 13:14
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [TN] Flux for solderability testing
>
>
> IMHO, only 25% water-white rosin should be used for solderability
> testing, on the principle that a) if it solders with that, it will
> solder with anything; b) it is the only standard by which discussions
> can take place between, e.g., supplier and user; c) the vapours of all
> fluxes are, to some degree or another, toxic (a lot of them being worse
> than colophony).
>
> The toxic effects of colophony have been greatly exaggerated. It is true
> that hand soldering at 350°C may produce minute quantities of aldehydes
> and this argument was used to try and scare people into using a
> synthetic flux about 20 or so years ago. I have about 50 years
> experience of soldering with rosin-based fluxes and I've NEVER come
> across a single case of asthma sensitisation. I have come across 2 cases
> of skin problems with DIN 8511 F-SW32 fluxes but this was due to the
> acid activator and not the rosin. Changing to F-SW26 (also rosin-based)
> solved the problem (and, incidentally, made soldering easier).
>
> Solderability testing uses only minute quantities of rosin and is not
> done every minute of the day with the operator's nose stuck where he can
> breathe in the fumes. The risk is negligible. If you are worried, you
> can even extract the fumes. And do remember that 99% of electronics hand
> soldering, producing greater quantities of fumes, up to the advent of
> "no-clean" soldering, was done with rosin (and probably 50% still is).
> My advice is therefore use colophony and don't seek monsters that don't
> exist.
>
> Brian
>
> Alistair Murray wrote:
>
>>For health & safety requirements, I am seeking an alternative test flux
>>to that prescribed for use in the solder testing of PCBs.
>>
>>This test flux comprises 25% colophony in alcohol.
>>
>>Colophony is classed as a Sensitizing Agent for Occupational Asthma.
>>
>>LEV is an option but I would prefer to use a safe flux of similar
>>"activity".
>>
>>
>>
>>Does anyone know of a colophony-free flux of similar activity? I regret
>>that I do not know the activity of the colophony flux (acid value?). Is
>>there a way of comparing it with the activity of a synthetic flux?
>>
>>
>>
>>Many thanks in anticipation
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Alistair Murray
>>
>>Artetch Circuits Ltd
>>
>>UK
>>
>>
>>
>>
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