Solder Safety Precautions – Technical Articles

lthough we provide cadmium-free solders, we still feel that using cadmium-free solder is a way of disguising the real problem:

Poor Ventilation and Poor Work Habits
The standard for proper ventilation is 6 changes of air per hour. It is also important that the inlet and outlet air be correctly positioned in the room to move the fumes away from the breathing zone of the worker. The average hood over your kitchen range pulls enough CFM (cubic feet per minute) to easily ventilate a room 8 x 8 x 10 feet.

Place the hood as close to the source of contaminant as possible. The required volume of air varies with the square of the distance from the source. We recommend that you analyze your ventilation to remove any hazardous fumes from soldering instead of fooling yourself by using cadmium-free solders.

It is also imperative that you do not have your head directly over your work. Raise the object up so that you are looking directly at it instead of over it. By changing this simple work habit, the jeweler avoids breathing a lot of the the fumes when soldering. Along with proper ventilation, you will be better off following these safety precautions to avoid all fumes in your shop.

Proper ventilation can be done economically with a kitchen stove hood.