"Arfa Daily" wrote in message ...
:
: "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

Thanks for the opinions,
All I can say is that I have been handling the holy hell out of the
stuff for a hell of a long time.. Consider this, I would solder
some stuff then pick up the guitar play a bit.
Then solder some more, play a bit more, on and on for maybe
12 hours/day at times.
So now picture this on a 'time off' off day (a real rarity:-)
I waltz into the room play a bit of guitar then break for a sandwich.
What just happened here? I've just unthinkingly
transfered the lead that's accumulated on my guitar strings to
my sandwich. Scarf the sandwich, then it's in the body.