"Dave Moore" wrote in message
news:W7vHh.3913$B7.2859@bigfe9...
Damn, for almost a week I have been forgetting to
post about my recent experience. So, since
I finally remembered;

Not long ago I started noticing that when I would
play the guitar I was missing a lot of the strings.
Also I was doing weird stuff like bumping into
the edges of doorways on occasion,
instead of gracefully passing through them.
Sometimes when standing still, it would feel like
my feet were sliding apart in this kinda weird
almost spinning sensation. Sometimes numbness
in the hands.

Anyway, finally, it dawned on me that perhaps
30 years involved in electronics with a good
20 of them heavily involved in prototyping guitar
amp designs, might have taken it's toll. So I did some
research online and discovered that indeed my symptoms
just might well be those of lead poisoning.

To make a long story short, for the last couple
of months I've been munching mass quantities
of Cilantro, about 1 bunch/day.
Also I've been supplementing with selenium.

Both supposedly have chelating agents in them that
can help rid the body of metals.
Anyway, after about 2 month's of this, I am noticing
my coordination has improved immensely
when playing the guitar, and no more
weird numbness or spinning sensations as of late.

I suppose this is all a bit anecdotal, but thought I'd relay
my experience anyway FWIW.

I also read about how lead poisoning was what
made the Hat makers go mad and is where the
expression "Mad Hatter" came from.

This struck me a bit funny since my wife
and I have an animal shelter for cats. I'm
thinking about changing my screen name to
"The Mad Catter" :-)

BTW, also I have a lot of dental fillings
starting to break lose, so I have to wonder
if some of the metal toxicity might also be
a result of mercury from crumbling amalgum.

At any rate, whatever the cause, heaping servings
of Cilantro and a supplement of selenium seem
to be keeping it in check.
I plan to look into Chlorella which also is
purported to have chelating properties.



Lead as a metal does not fume at soldering temperatures, such that it can be
ingested in that way. The fumes and vapour that you see when soldering, are
from the flux contained in the solder, burning away. There is some evidence
that prolongued exposure to the rosin based fluxes used to date, can cause
respiratory tract ailments such as industrial asthma, and may in extreme
circumstances be carcinogenic. The fluxes that are now being used with the
new-fangled lead-free solder that has been forced on us in Europe as a
result of new legislation, are quite acidic, and very aggressive compared to
the previous rosin compounds, so bench ventilation is now rather more
important than it was.

It may be possible to suffer a degree of lead poisoning from continuous
handling of the basic metal, although it is a fairly inert material that is
not generally associated with absorption through the skin, unlike beryllium
for instance which is used elsewhere in electronics. Some commentators have
also refuted that there is any free lead toxicity issue with solder, as it
is a stable alloy with tin, and chemically locked in. Even over 30 years of
handling the stuff daily ( as indeed I have myself ), it is unlikely that
you would have ingested as much lead as you would have from the exhausts of
gasoline powered vehicles in say a year, prior to the switchover to unleaded
some years back. Once you have metal deposits in your body, I understand
that it is very difficult to drive them out, which is why this kind of
toxicity is cumulative.

There has been some suggestion that in ye olden tymes, people were
lead-poisoned by drinking wine and cider from mugs made of pewter
(traditionally, another tin / lead alloy of the ratio of about 4 :1, but can
have other components also). The acidity of the drink supposedly broke down
the alloy, and dissolved the lead, giving it a nice route into the body.

Many people now seem to suffer "short-term memory loss". People everywhere
joke about it. One of the games console makers have even brought out a
memory training game that they have been advertising on tv over here using
the TV presenter from "Millionaire". I know people who have never worked
with solder in their lives, or any form of lead come to that, who claim that
they can be thinking of something that they have to say, and by the time
they come to say it, it's gone ... Sound familiar ? This is reaching
epidemic proportions over here, so what's the cause ? Crap that they're
putting in the food ? The water ? Genetically modded oils that they are
cooking stuff in ? Much more worrying, I think, than lead from solder ...

Arfa