[Jewelry making - Article 00760] - Re: [Orchid] Pregnancy and ventillation in studio

[Stephen Walker]

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>     Those MSDS sheets always make for scary reading! Is anyone else
>     using boric acid in alcohol as a flux? If so, what type of safety
>     precautions do you employ? 

    I have used boric acid in alcohol as anti-firescale flux for at
    least 30 years, almost every day. It doesn't make for very good
    soldering flux, so I add either a white paste flux or the green
    liquid Battern's flux for the joints. 

    The main precaution I use is VENTILLATION! I also wash my hands a
    lot. I have never experienced any irritation that I thought was from
    boric acid. Sodium bisulphate (Sparex) pickel is a skin irritant and
    the fumes are bad. The fluoride fumes from paste flux are very bad,
    so USE VENTILLATION! 

    It constantly amazes me how many jewelers can't be bothered to set
    up proper ventillation for their soldering. There are less toxic
    materials you can use, but none of them are totally safe and they
    generally don't work as well. With good ventillation you can safely
    use all the bad stuff that really gets the job done. 

    BTW, boric acid used to be sold in drug stores as eye wash. The
    first time I ever bought any it was to treat an eye infection for a
    kitten when I was about 12 years old. I have used it for an eye wash
    myself, but I notice on the packaging now that it tells you not to
    use it as an eye wash or as a skin powder. Now, if they have it at
    all at the drug store it is usually behind the counter. I wonder why
    they sell it in drug stores at all if the traditional uses as eye
    wash and skin powder are now offsides. Lucky for us the jewelry
    supply houses are now selling it. You can also buy boric acid as
    "roach powder" at builders suppliers. 

    In a teaching situation, I can't see how a school can justify
    teaching soldering without ventillation. Safer materials for flux
    and pickel may be less harmful, but what is the lesson learned? The
    school set up becomes the model for the studio the students set up
    for themselves when they move on. Chances are they may well discover
    how much better real flux and real pickel work. I know when you are
    teaching soldering, a bigger danger is that the students will get
    burned or start a fire. Somehow that danger is easier to understand
    and deal with than possible long term health effects from exposure
    to various materials. It seems to me that you had better CYA with
    good VENTILLATION! 

Stephen Walker
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