As I have posted on this site about my ongoing battle with Lyme, HHV-6 and EBV and other blood anomalies, I thought this may be of interest to those of you concerned with heavy metals. Most are looking at parts per million and as I worked with architectural sheet metals (mostly copper, tin and lead) all requiring 50/50 lead/tin soldering that contained significant amounts of arsenic, mercury, and cadmium and flux. I believe the fact that I personally held bare handed 1 lb. bars and breathed in the smoke and vapors from what amounted to 1800 lbs. annually, this times more than twenty years equaling well over 36,000 lbs or 18 tons. Although unimaginable now, poor was really poor and a lot of people did whatever it took to provide a living, the above figures were based on company records.
How many dental fillings would 18 tons fill? Stupid what I did, yes, did we know any better, no. The truth
is you can still buy 50 lb boxes of 50/50 lead solder at your local sheet metal wholesaler and there is not one warning label on or in the box. Did it cause me problems, I believe so, mostly neurological in nature, and most did eventually resolve, excepting cold numb feet and some muscle twitching in my legs, so should you worry about heavy metals ? yes, but even in extreme exposures in adults, you should probably be okay.
The object of this post was to hopefully relieve some of the stress to those of you that
are concerned about long term effects of these toxins, and on the positive side of things, I
probably won't rust.