solder

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One guy I worked with melted his computer because he kept dousing it with cleaning fluid.

Leaded solder is (obviously) toxic. Lead-free is not. Leaded solder makes shiny silver joints; lead-free is more of a flat silvery-white color. It's likely that the solder on most electronics you buy is leaded.

As lead is a cumulative toxin, avoiding it, wherever possible certainly makes a great deal of sense. However, your dosage from an occasional bit of soldering isn't going to add significantly to your overall dosage.

Yes it is. Not as toxic. Check up on the metals used in lead-free solder. One type uses antimony, which is most definitely toxic. Of the rest, only silver seems totally harmless, although Australia bans metallic silver as a foodstuff, which it is, along with gold, in India.

I Hate lead free, Non stop dry joints, GRR but managed to source a lot of 60/40 so i will be happy for the next 40 years or soo lol. but i do wonder how much damage ive done to myself with the leaded stuff as ive been soldering since my 6th Birthday and im gonna be 21 in less than 3 weeks time. i hate opening windows as scotland is very cold. Joe

For those who are worried about their exposure to lead, there is a blood test available.
In the U.S., I know the public health departments will test for it... we send in blood for lead level tests on children all the time to the health department.

I'm not sure of the procedure and whether there is a cost from the Public Health Office where you live.

For children we just do a finger prick and take a very small sample of blood.

*NEVER* use unleaded solder for electronics work. The lead prevents a phenomenon called 'tin whiskers' (Google it) - literally whiskers of metallic tin - that grow naturally via a yet-to-be-explained process in electronic equipment and have been known to render such equipment unusable due to shorting within only a few years. This has even cost NASA several expensive satellites. This is such a serious situation that unleaded solder is prohibited in electronic equipment intended for military, medical and aircraft avionics use in the USA.

Don't want to get lead poisoning from the solder in your electronics stuff? Don't suck on the circuit boards!

Mike