If Lead is terrible, thanks to getting it out of petrol, why are we still selling lead solders which will easily poison you? I have done some soldering with zero education on how to properly do it or the safety implications. I've most likely poisoned myself.
Can we not ban lead for non-certified use? Like I don't see home depot selling liquid nitrogen wily nily. Same with oxygen tanks. Isn't playing with Lead in the same ballpark?
The simple reason for the difference is that poisons are only dangerous if they end up somewhere they shouldn't be. When we put lead in gasoline, it was going everywhere in the environment, including the air. Lead which is in a large enough chunk that it doesn't spontaneously become airborne is much less likely to end up inside of a human.
Brass also contains lead, which you almost certainly have inside of your house in a few places. Even 'lead-free' brass for plumbing contains some lead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass#Lead_content The key is that it has to be in low enough concentrations that it doesn't end up leaving the part and ending up in dangerous amounts inside of humans.
Unless you have occupational exposure, you have most likely not even come close to poisoning yourself even if you didn't follow any safety precautions. Lead is pretty bad, but it's not something that causes issues with any amount of exposure... you body can tolerate some lead exposure. A hobbyist that solders a dozen PCBs per year has a way different potential exposure than someone who solders a dozen per hour for 2000 hours per year.
> Like I don't see home depot selling liquid nitrogen wily nily. Same with oxygen tanks.
Lead is dangerous in one way: when it gets into your body. Lead on your skin is not harmful. There are two main ways lead gets into your body: you can eat it, or you can breathe it in.
Not eating lead is straightforward: wash your hands before you eat, and, uh, just _don't eat lead_. Unfortunately this is harder in practice than it sounds: lead paint was a major health problem because teaching young children about lead isn't easy. There are also several lead compounds that actually taste pretty good, so you want to eat more; go ask the ancient Romans about that. Then don't eat any of those compounds!
Leaded gasoline is an entirely different problem, because "just don't breathe" is, ah, not practical. It's exposure that cannot be avoided, and that is serious indeed.
Lead solder isn't really more dangerous than the soldering iron you're applying it with. And lead-free solder can poison you too.
The problems caused by lead are from it filling the environment, not touching tiny amounts. We'd probably get much more benefit by finally banning it in aviation gas.
Can we not ban lead for non-certified use? Like I don't see home depot selling liquid nitrogen wily nily. Same with oxygen tanks. Isn't playing with Lead in the same ballpark?