I can't believe the naivete of this publication. One of the bullet points is:
• Do not use metal and plastic toys and electronic equipment containing lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, bromine, and PVC plastic.
And how, pray tell, are they going to do that? There are still Chinese and US electronics manufacturers using lead solders today. But in the past, they all were lead and most had sources of cadmium, mercury and arsenic in them as well. And Canada just recently published warnings about toys and jewelry for children imported from China made of almost pure cadmium metal!
And do you really think these kids will be ripping up and rewiring all brand new lead-free electronics made to the EU standards? Come on! They are getting old gaming toys and other electronics and re-working the motherboards. I have seen electronics from the 50s, 60s and 70s in these breaker spaces. And who the hell is testing anything before they "desolder" (with heat) this would-be-should-be-trash?
A school I dealt with last year was using lead solder because they said it needed to be "compatible" with the old lead solder on these game boards. And there was NO Lead Standard Program there.
NO BREAKER SPACE SHOULD BE SET UP WITHOUT EXHAUST VENTILATION SOLDERING/DESOLDERING STATIONS AND THE APPLICABLE OSHA PROGRAMS. And the person in control the projects should be trained to use lead lead test kits and have access to other testing.. And, since the teacher or instructor and the janitors cleaning this room are "employees," the employer is required to have written OSHA (or state OSHA) Lead and Cadmium Standard Programs for these employees and do periodic monitoring.
When I see these rooms set up with no exhaust ventilation and posted warnings, I KNOW the school's administrators, teachers, and EH&S are just looking the other way.
I'm going to send this on to safesci**At_Symbol_Here**sbcglobal.net, I'm irked in the extreme.
Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F..A., Industrial Hygienist
President: Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE
181 Thompson St., #23
New York, NY 10012 212-777-0062
-----Original Message-----
From: DCHAS Membership Chair <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Sent: Sat, Mar 24, 2018 9:37 am
Subject: [DCHAS-L] NSTA Safety Blog: Safer Breakerspaces
This blog post reviews PPE, Safety training, Supervision and Assess hazards and determine risks of materials and equipment associated with Breakerspaces
- Ralph
http://nstacommunities.org/blog/2018/03/23/safer-breakerspaces/
Safer Breakerspaces
Breakerspaces are areas where students demolish, repurpose, fix, or disassemble appliances, electronics, toys, and other devices to learn how they work, what components were used to create them, and how they were designed. Like any type of construction or demolition work, safety preparation is absolutely critical. When preparing a breakerspace activity, teachers should consider the following safety guidelines.
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