While I was soldering some pipes together in my basement, I noticed that as I heated it up, the copper pipe was smoking before I applied any solder(yes I used plumbing solder).
I assumed that the smoke was some residue from manufacturing the pipes, just burning off. But I couldn’t help wondering, is there metal vapor in there too? Just how toxic is it. I dont really need heavy metal poisoning from breating the fumes.
Do metals like copper, brass and tin give off toxic fumes when heated to around 600 degrees?
I don’t have a definitive answer but the metals you mentioned are not notably toxic. That’s why they’re used for pipes and other household goods. Neither do they give off significant emissions at the temperature you mentioned. The lead in the solder you used is much more likely to give you problems than the metals you are working on. And the solder’s not going to do you any harm without years of exposure.
So relax, finish your repairs, drink a tall glass of bottled water until your jitters fade and enjoy the miracle of modern-day plumbing.
Plumbing solder has no lead in it, as per federal law.
The fumes coming off of the flux as it it heated arent exactly good for you, but short term exposure shouldn’t do you any harm. I spent a week helping sweat together pipe for a house, and the fumes didn’t hurt me. Grabbing onto a hot stick of pipe is a different story!
And one of the things your friendly water utility likely does is to make sure the water they produce is slightly alkaline, so that dissolved minerals tend to fall out of solution and form a protective coating of scale on pipes. Over time, this should seal off any exposed metal from contact with the water.
This is quite common and desireable. The alternative, having acidic water, is bad. While slightly acidic water would keep the minerals dissolved, the water would then be corrosive and try to dissolve some more minerals, like the ones in your pipes. And not just the cheap couple hundred feet of copper in your house, but mainlines also which are made of concrete or iron and buried underground.
Still, to minimize the amount of metals you ingest, let the tap water run until it is cold, as that is the water coming from the mainline out in the street and hasn’t been sitting around that long dissolving things. And don’t drink hot water from the tap. Hot water heaters are a significant source of metals in water, as hot water dissolves things more easily, and the water sticks around there for a while until you use it, letting the dissolved metals concentration become even more concentrated.
This is a relativly recent law, and I belive the law is it is illegal to use leaded solder on water supply pipes. You can still use leaded solder on waste pipes. Older houses will most likely have lead solder on the water supply pipes.
Could have been the flux (you did use it, I trust). I’ve never done any pipe soldering, but I occasionally solder electronic parts, where tin/lead solder (often with a flux core) is the norm.