soldering while pregnant
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Original Post
Hey there. My husband and I are considering starting a family in the next year or so, and right now a huge part of my business is small silver soldering. Does anyone know if I will be able to continue doing this work through pregnancy? Just feeling like I need to start thinking about these things. :) Thanks!
Posted at 4:59pm Oct 26, 2009 EDT
Responses
I'm not pregnant, but have been, and the two considerations I can think of are your belly, and how you will fit comfortable in your bench or workspace with the growing belly, and also wearing the appropriate safety gear. Maybe wear a better filtering mask for fumes.
I'm going to school for metalsmithing in silver and one of my teachers is pregnant and she seems to be doing just fine.
Posted at 5:22pm Oct 26, 2009 EDT
Thanks for that info, Veronica. I've consulted a few medical friends and gotten unclear answers. It's nice to know that at least it's not forbidden. :)
Posted at 5:29pm Oct 26, 2009 EDT
If your question is about inhaling fumes or facing skin contact contamination with silver salts or flux, provide yourself with industrial strength ventilation for the former, and search out full gloves for the latter.
Industrial hand-soldering stations hoods cost a fortune, but you can probably gather ideas by using Google Images to search on 'soldering fume hood'.
They're basically an enclosed workbench with a fan with high air movement either exhausted into a scrubber (you could exhaust to the outdoors without appreciable ecological damage) or into a chemical filter. The fan draws air at a hefty rate, wasting fumes up and away from your face and lungs.
Posted at 5:31pm Oct 26, 2009 EDT
Make sure that if you are using any kind of mask to protect from vapors, that it does not reduce your oxygen intake - that can be as dangerous to the baby as inhaling fumes. Good luck!
Posted at 5:35pm Oct 26, 2009 EDT
You also need to consider the particles generated by using a polishing wheel. Even if you only breathe in a small amount of silver dust, that can cross the placental barrier fairly easily, which can lead in some cases to silver poisoning. A very good pariculate filter will solve your problem though! I did alot of work while I was pregnant and simply took common sense precautions and both babies were just fine. Good Luck!
Posted at 5:36pm Oct 26, 2009 EDT
Thanks guys. I have a good quality, comfortable respirator that I could be more diligent about wearing, and work in a group studio that actually has a very good ventilation system.
Posted at 5:37pm Oct 26, 2009 EDT
I'm currently pregnant and I decided to stop soldering altogether. I figured the risk wasn't worth it to me, personally. I also stopped using LOS and went to the egg method. It works just as well on silver but not so much on copper.
Kaelin, thanks for the info on polishing- I wonder if same holds true for sanding. Hadn't thought about that before. Apparently, I need to do some more reading. Any recommendations?
Posted at 5:47pm Oct 26, 2009 EDT
foxglove, I see you use resin, too. I would find out about ventilating and using that while pregnant, as well.
Posted at 5:49pm Oct 26, 2009 EDT