A long time ago when we first started surface mounting the Dr who was
the head of the Health and Safety Executive in the South of the UK
announced that he and his assistants would like to visit our site. They
wanted to come as they had just heard of the process of printing lead
based solders and wanted to see the process and understand the risks.
After viewing the processes they asked if they could perform blood tests
on our employees looking for lead.
Being helpful I agreed to ask for volunteers.
All the tests were within limit but the highest was the wave operator. 
We were then helped by the this Dr to improve the PPE at the wave, he
was of the opinion it was inhalation of dust during de-drossing, that
caused the elevated (in limit) reading.
His major concern was the production of dust that could be inhaled and
the maximum temperature of our processes as that could put lead into a
state where it could be inhaled. When I asked him about hygiene and
solder paste he was very dismissive that this could be a problem even
the operators didn't wash their hands correctly, lumps of lead don't get
readily absorbed. I think that he included eating it!
I'd support the 'wash your hands' theory.
Regards
Rex

-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Douglas Pauls
Sent: 12 January 2012 16:03
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] Hand Wipes and Lead Residues

Good morning all,

I just had a chat with one of our ES&H engineers, a very pleasent young
lady, on the topic of hand wipes and lead residues.  Was I aware of any
industry studies on the efficiency of hand wipes marketed at removing
lead residues, presumably from contact with cored wire solder?  I was
not aware of any.  I am always instantly suspicious of ANYTHING that
marketers touch.  I am of the opinion that good old fashioned hand
washing with soap and water is as effective as anything, but there are
areas here where we are pretty sure our operators go straight from the
bench to lunch without that step. 

So, I turn to my favorite source of information.

1.  Are you aware of any industrial hygiene studies regarding
transferrence of lead to the hand, and/or the efficiency of "lead
removal wipes" in removing residues.
2.  In your facilities, do you use these kinds of wipes?
3.  If not, what measures do you normally use for operators cleaning
hands to remove potentially harmful material?

I will probably discuss this with our crackerjack metallurgist when he
returns from travel tomorrow, but thought I would ask in the mean time.

Doug Pauls

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