Paul,
In defense of my previous comments. My argument in favor of piping the
"filtered" wavesolder exhaust outside of the building is that NO FILTER
OR CARBON ABSORBER can make pure clean air out of your wavesolder
exhaust or mine. To believe the government defined TLVs for this stuff
is very naive. Just look how they lower the limit every few years. I
don't think the lead is getting more toxic. Do you?
If you are not venting your treated and filtered exhausts outside of
your building then you could be putting your employees health and safety
at risk. Why put their health at the mercy of some maintenance
technician and some vendor who sold you the system? OK so you checked,
and the air passed the industrial hygienists air sample. Do you know
exactly how long the filter will last? Do you have a continuous
monitoring system? How do you know when the filter has been installed
with the gasket seal on the wrong way? How do you know that when you
get laid off that the person who inherits your system will have your
same value system? I'm sorry but I don't believe the experts who tell
me that .005% of a carcinogen is OK to breathe every day.
Trying to portray us as pollution mongers is absurd. Like most people, I
drive to work every day. Unless you ride a bike or walk you are making
a decision to pollute the environment. Now you must decide how much is
too much. In everything we do at Six Sigma we go well beyond the
regulations when it comes to protecting the environment.
I'm sorry if our humor has been misunderstood. Please don't see it as a
"don't care" attitude about the planet we live on.
Regards, Russ Winslow
Six Sigma
1940 Concourse Drive
San Jose, CA 95131
-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Stephen R. Gregory
Sent: Monday, March 15, 1999 11:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] Solder Fumes
In a message dated 3/15/99 8:37:29 AM Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< Hi Todd&Russ&Steve&Bev
Just a point when you've raised the 6 month screening (quite right) :
Few HR
dept.s have the foresight of screening NEWCOMERS ; and occasionally get
company into serious poo when a fellow tramping for decades over silicon
valley with all of the chimneys for pigeon eradicating programs ; (I
don't
believe my eyes here as I read all of this ;you guys have it way too
easy over
there ; we have to have by law [not every buddy 's "aware" of it ,
regional to
councils as well] three stage filter [pre, HEPA , and carbon to humanize
bad
breath of wave maintenance guys ; able to discharge, optionally ; air
back to
room] ; finally gets overdosed ! And there goes this >six sigma< fellow
in
crime "personally" preferring holes {which I'd understood} ; but in roof
!!! ;
no wonder I get all stuffy trotting seminars round LA !!!
You guys work like middle aged England's industrial revolution : Stuff
the
pigeons (literally) ; here comes the progress . I understand theyr's
etching
on your prized 3pack duco and shitting down Acropolis is not quite that
nice ;
still ; I'm flabbergasted .
paul>>
Hi ya Paul!
Flabbergasted are ya? Ya' shouldn't be...things aren't quite so bad
as
the picture you're painting of us...while there's room for improvement
to be
sure (don't get me started on MTBE's, California's way of dealing with
the
pollution of auto exhaust) we're not quite back in the middle ages. A
lot of
the things I was saying was meant quite "tongue in cheek" and not be
taken
literally.
Here in the San Fransisco Bay Area we have a quite strict organanization
called the Bay Area Air Quality Management District under which all of
us
printed circuit businesses answer to, and those that have dealt with
BAAQMD
know what I'm talking about when I say strict....
The following is from Regulation 11 (Hazardous Pollutants)
Rule 15 (Airborn Toxic Control Measure For Emissions of Toxic Metals
From Non-
Ferrous Metal Melting)
The first part (a) goes through all the definitions, then it gets into
the
regulation:
(b) Requirements: No person shall operate a non-ferrous metal melting
furnace
unless the facility is in compliance with all the requirements specified
in
subsections B1 through B3.
The section that really applies to guys like us is:
(B3) Fugitive Emission Control
(a) No activity associated with metal melting at a facilty
including furnace
operation, casting, emission control system operation, and the storage,
handling, transfer of any materials (except new sand) shall discharge
into the
air any air contaminate, other than uncombined water vapor, for a
period
aggregating more than three minutes in any hour which is:
(i) Half as dark or darker in shade as that designated
as number 1 on the
Ringlemann Chart, as published by the United States Bureau
of Mines, or
(ii) Of such opacity as to obscure an observer's view to
a degree equal to
or greater than smoke as described in subsection B3, A(i) or
10% opacity.
(b) Dust-forming material including, but not limited to, dross,
ash, or feed
material shall be stored in an enclosed storage area or stored in a
manner
which meets the requirements of subsection B3 (a).
(c) Material collected by a particulate matter control system
shall be
discharged into closed containers or an enclosed system that is
completely
sealed to prevent any dust from getting out.
(d) Surfaces that are subjected to vehicular or foot traffic
shall be
vacuumed, wet mpped, or otherwise maintained in accordance with a
District-
approved maintenance plan. The plan shall specify, at a minimum: the
areas to
be cleaned, the method to be used, the required frequency of the
cleaning
activities, and a method of documenting the completion of the required
activities. The plan shall be designed and carried out in a way
which will
meet the requirements of B3 (a)
(C) Exemptions
1) Small Quantity Exemptions.
Facilities are exempt from subsections B1, B2, and B3 if they
meet either of
the following conditions:
(a) Melt a total of no more than one ton per year of all
metals, or
(b) Melt no more than the listed quantities of any one
of the specific
metals listed in table 1.
TABLE 1
METAL
EXEMPTION LIMIT (Tons per year)
Pure Lead
400
Hard Lead
200
Aluminum Scrap
125
Aluminum Ingot containing more
125
than .004% cadmium or .002%
arsenic
Solder
100
Zinc Scrap
30
Copper or Copper based alloys
30
containing more than .004% cadmium
0r .002% arsenic
Type Metal (lead for linotype machines) 25
So as you can see, by following the regulations there's a lot of us
small guys
exempt. Sorry things are so tough for you down under. I'm no
environmental
engineer, but do you really think all the regulations that you have to
deal
with are really necessary?
I'm not going to try and debate that lead isn't a toxic compound, and if
it
were a perfect world there shouldn't be anything harmful to us humans
anywhere, but sometimes regulations can be "overkill", just as I'm sure
regulations can be ineffective sometimes. I'm just asking the questions
of
what is really prudent and neccesary?
As far as you always being stuffed up down in LA, I'm pretty sure you
can
blame that on the weather patterns, the geography of the LA Basin, and
cars.
Not my reflow and wave exhaust...I wouldn't do that to ya' pardner!
-Steve Gregory-
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