The evil diesel

[Gibbo2286]

I know that bad air can be a great pain for some but having lived through the days of industrial smoke pollution, domestic coal fire pollution, yellow smog etc. I can't help feeling that the in current state of affairs air pollution and its harm caused is much exaggerated.

A great many of my generation had breathing difficulties caused, not by ambient air pollution but by their own self inflicted smoking damage and I suspect that that may still be the case for many.

[Peter.N.]

I have to agree somewhat, I remember the smogs of the '50s which were largely eliminated by the banning of ordinary house coal in towns and cities, but vehicle emissions are cleaner now than they have ever been although the increase in traffic has largely compensated for that, most lorries and busses in my youth trailed a black plume behind them but there wasn't a great outcry about it.

I think that a lot of problems are caused by some peoples unhealthy lifestyles making their immune systems less effective and everything being so sterile now has prevented children from eating enough dirt.

Peter

[Mandrake]

And asbestos was widely used in houses back in those days too. Nowadays men with hazard suits and breathing masks remove it from your house. Should we go back to using asbestos as well and pretend asbestos was OK all along ?

The truth is that scientific advancement discovers that things we once thought were safe aren't actually safe. That's called progress. Yes a lot of the low hanging fruit has been dealt with already - like coal burning in houses, and all cars these days have catalytic converters, which made a huge difference in countries like the UK.

But just because the low hanging fruit is dealt with doesn't mean there isn't more to do. As a somewhat naive New Zealander who moved to the UK and visited parts of Europe for the first time nearly 10 years ago, I had never realised that the sky was not actually a deep blue all the way out to the horizon in many countries... I remember visiting Paris (lovely city by the way, I really liked it) and being shocked at the fact that the sky went from a slightly washed out blue directly overhead to more or less grey at the horizon. And that was with no clouds in the sky. Suddenly I knew what smog really was about.

It's not that bad in Scotland but there are definitely plenty of summer days where the sky is grey at the horizon instead of blue due to summer smog. Wouldn't it be wonderful to get most parts of the world back to a deep blue sky ? Am I just a dreamer ?

[Peter.N.]

I think it goes from one extreme to another, many of the things I was exposed to are now banned, lead in solder, carbon tetrochloride and clutch and brake asbestos to name but a few and they have had no effect on me yet - as far as I know, but I know others that have died from mesothelioma as a result of contact with blue asbestos, I am not denying these things can be hazardous but I was a TV engineer for 50 years but wouldn't have been able do my job under current health and safety regulations.

A healthy regard for hazardous substances is sensible as it is for a chainsaw but some people go over the top, probably due to a lack of understanding and often a lack of common sense which seems to be in short supply these days - probably why we have health and safety laws now.

Peter

[Hell Razor5543]

Some years ago a friend of mine was at a radio rally. One of the stall holders had several reels of tin/lead solder, and my friend bought a load. Nearby was somebody who was from Trading Standards (either that, or was a nosy busybody). This person said "You know that stuff is bad for the environment, don't you?", to which my friend responded that he did not intend to use it in the environment, but in his workshop. Busybody replied that "You know it will be banned, don't you?", and got the answer "yes, but it hasn't yet". Busybody still wasn't happy, and asked if my friend knew about the alternatives. When my friend asked what they were one of the options was a cadmium based solder! My friend said he would use this option if certain facilities were made available to him. When busybody asked what these facilities were my friend asked for the used of a sealed workshop (with atmospheric scrubbers), hazmat suits, and free use of a hazardous materials waste disposal site. Busybody was taken aback, and then got really upset when my friend told him he would rather EAT the tin/lead solder he had just bought than even CONSIDER using a cadmium based solder, as cadmium is somewhat more toxic than lead, by a HUGE factor!

[Peter.N.]

A little knowledge ..... He met the right person there. This new non lead solder is useless for repairs on old electronics as for a start the melting point is way to high, it just doesn't flow like the 'proper' tin/lead mix.

My memory is not very good but i don't think I can blame that on 50 years of inhaling lead, and the flux smelt much nicer then.

Peter

[GiveMeABreak]

Yes, absolutely agreed Peter - totally hopeless this modern solder - very little control over it and a bu**er to get it to stick to anything.

[bobins]

Regarding the tin/lead solder - what's worst for the environment : using tin/lead solder and fixing a non working bit of electronics (TV, radio, etc), or throwing away the duff bit of electronics and buying a modern replacement one ?
Discuss !!

[Mandrake]

A little knowledge ..... He met the right person there. This new non lead solder is useless for repairs on old electronics as for a start the melting point is way to high, it just doesn't flow like the 'proper' tin/lead mix.

My memory is not very good but i don't think I can blame that on 50 years of inhaling lead, and the flux smelt much nicer then.

Peter

I'm building a fairly complicated (30'ish passive components per speaker!) new 2 way crossover for my speakers and I'll be doing it all using lead based solder.

Modern lead free electrical solder is awful, I still have a roll of fine rosen core 60/40 lead/tin solder that I brought with me from NZ nearly 10 years ago, and you can prise that out of my cold dead hands... (maybe I will be dead eventually from too much exposure to lead solder, I've been using it since I was about 10... ) I don't even know if its possible to buy now in the UK so I'm hanging onto it...

Even worse is trying to mix lead free and lead based solders on the same board - if you're not sure what the board was originally soldered with you can end up with a right mishmash that won't solder very well...

[white exec]

I think I got my fill of lead quite young. Not only soldering from teens onwards, but I also started setting lead type when I was about 8 years old, firstly at a youth club and to help a friend, and then - when I acquired by own Adana High-Speed No.2 - for teenage pocket-money.

Worse, I lose count of the number of occasions when there must have been lead type and a comp.stick in one hand, and a sandwich in the other.

Once printing ink gets under the finger nails, it never leaves. My second career was in the printing industry, this time in R&D and sales of digitally imaged offset plates. "Old Printers Never Die, They Just Lose the Point..."

[lexi]

I don't think anyone is suggesting that pollution was acceptable then or now.
What is being said is that when you have experienced worse times, in work, health, poverty, housing or even War, it makes you grateful for what you have now.
It was never a perfect world, but when it was free of car pollution, The Vikings would come and burn your town down.

[lexi]

I think I got my fill of lead quite young. Not only soldering from teens onwards, but I also started setting lead type when I was about 8 years old, firstly at a youth club and to help a friend, and then - when I acquired by own Adana High-Speed No.2 - for teenage pocket-money.

Adana HS2.jpg
Worse, I lose count of the number of occasions when there must have been lead type and a comp.stick in one hand, and a sandwich in the other.

Once printing ink gets under the finger nails, it never leaves. My second career was in the printing industry, this time in R&D and sales of digitally imaged offset plates. "Old Printers Never Die, They Just Lose the Point..."

Lead Burning for me Chris. It is welding lead sheet together. I did hundreds of it. Anyone doing that now in industry needs to get their bloods checked regular.

[Peter.N.]

Adana, that strikes a chord, you must be nearly as old as me Chris. My dad worked in the print only he was a proof reader - obsolete now like TV engineers.

Peter

[myglaren]

Proof readers are sorely missed - the amount of errors in print are very disheartening.

[bobins]

Every time you make a typo, the errorist wins