Tin Whiskers and Nuclear Missiles

Lead is considered by experts to be a poison. I say it is "considered" a poison because while some "far better qualified than I" organizations which claim that as little as 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood (μg/dL) is harmful (that's 1/100,000 of a gram per liter of blood). I guess this stuff is HIGHLY toxic!

I've been handling lead in the form of solder for over 35 years, and show no signs or symptoms of lead poisoning. (Typically solder is 60% lead, 40% tin). I think lead might be poisonous if you eat it, although I've known kids that grew up quite healthy, who in their childhood used to peal lead based paint chips off the school room walls and eat it! I'm fairly certain that if you inject molten lead directly into your bloodstream it would not be a good thing.

Well, I say that lead is a wee bit less toxic than some would report it to be - but honestly, the symptoms are typically balding, headaches, abdominal pain, memory loss, kidney failure, and weakness, pain, or tingling in the extremities. It seems to me that with folks my age - most of those "symptoms" apply - even if we haven't played with solder. That being said - having played with lead most of my life, I only have occasional abdominal pain when I eat Jalapeños, show no sign of balding, and the only weakness, pain, and headaches I have can be directly attributed to a hard, stressful day at work, or forgetting to put on my glasses.

Nevertheless, because of these warnings of dire tragedy (the sky is falling), lead is being reduced in landfills, by reducing the amount used in electronics production. In short - newer "lead free" solders are being used nowdays which are harder to solder (requires more heat - aka less energy efficient methods), and after some time developes "tin whiskers" on them which can affect radio frequency equipment and high speed computer systems adversely. So much for progress.

As an interesting side note- lead based solder has also been banned from use in plumbing. I find this especially interesting, as the word plumbing comes from the Latin root word Plumbus, which is the Latin word for lead. Funny how plumbers don't use plumbus anymore because of fear based government regulation. In short - if you are afraid of touching lead - wear gloves.

Politically speaking - (stepping up onto my political podium):
Tin whiskers is a VERY REAL problem that proponents of RoHS compliance are afraid to discuss, because it is far more dangerous than the supposed lead poisoning they are fighting to stop.

Tin whiskers are the natural chemical result of crystalline growth of the metal tin in the absence of lead. "RoHS compliance" - an international push to get rid of lead in landfills has caused electronics manufacturers to curb the use of lead, which is now creating more of a tin whisker problem in the electronics world. It has been shown that Tin Whiskers was the cause of at least one $250,000,000 satellite to go bad in space (Galaxy 4) and are expected to cause even more problems. I have also seen reports from Government Agencies that deal with Nuclear facilities that say several nuclear systems have suffered from the effects of Tin Whiskers.

Tin whiskers can take place in the confines of space, and unseen inside the packaging of transistors and integrated circuits. Tin whiskers, due to RoHS compliance, are now able to be found in any kind of electronics anywhere in the world, including Military Weapons and Nuclear Plants, and the brakes on the car you drive use electronics.

So when the Nuclear plant 20 miles from you, goes Fukishima, or the nuclear missile accidentally launches and lands and blows up in your home town and kills millions of people - you can blame it on the "save mother earth" people who are afraid of putting the lead back where it came from - the earth - because it might leach out and get in your water, and make me grow bald by the time I'm 80 years.

If you want to know more about Tin Whiskers, or Electronics in general - visit ElectronicsTheory.Com