This might look like I’m poking a stick in a hornet’s nest, but that’s 90% not my intention. (And the maybe 10% is not aimed at anyone).
Having bought some rose gold wire on the Rio website I went to order some rose gold solder too, only to see a page-long explanation of why they do not sell any, but suggest their 10K yellow gold solder instead.
So I receive it and it has a California proposition 65 warning label, “known by the state of California to cause cancer” due to some nickel in the solder.
That got me to check their white gold, presumably with nickel. No warning. I emailed a question asking why the solder has the warning and not the white gold, and more to the point, is the solder warning solely for my benefit as someone who might inhale fumes when soldering, or do I need to include that warning if I use that solder and sell an item online, possibly to a Californian. I didn’t get a reply so I don’t know.
Then my new Rio tools catalog arrived, and it is chock full of prop. 65 warnings. My impression is 1/3rd of the items, but I didn’t count. Maybe it is 20%, maybe 25… Swanstrom pliers get the warning, again for nickel. All kinds of other things.
I tried reading about this on the California website, but I gave up because of the volume of text and the legalese nature of some of it. My take is that for what they ‘know’ to cause cancer, there is no safe level. So what is the story with nickel white gold if Swanstrom pliers are ‘known by the state of California to cause cancer’? (And I’m not picking on Swanstrom. I’m citing that as what I consider an absurdity.)
As an aside, if you go to the Vermont Country Store website or get their catalog you will see that they do not sell their Australian black licorice to Californians. It seems molasses contains lead, 'known by the state of California…"
I can see 4 options if one does not live in California but might sell on the internet:
A. Include the prop. 65 warning if using the Rio 10K yellow solder (I still don’t know about white gold);
B. Do like the Vermont Country Store and refuse to ship to California;
C. Don’t use anything 'known by the state of California…", except that’s a really long list;
D. Ignore their law and hope to not get caught. (I’m not into that but it is an arguable option.)
Carbon is listed too. So why don’t charcoal blocks come with the warning? Or diamonds for that matter, since they all carbon? Are charcoal blocks safer than Swanstrom pliers?
Anyway, I’m going to send the solder in with my scrap, who needs the aggravation over a few inches of wire? But what is the story with white gold? A, B, C, or D?
BTW, Stuller sells plumb 14K cadmium-free rose gold solder, and it does work. ???
Neil A