Lead warning on motherboards

[TheLegendCreator]

It's been almost 4 with my gaming PC and recently I've decided it was time to upgrade! The new intel 8th generation processor caught my attention and might as well consider buying under that category, the only problem is when I started searching for compatible motherboards all of them seem to have the same label. For example with the ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming LGA 1151 (300 Series), under the specifications it says:

WARNING: Products with exposed solder may contain lead, a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm. Please wash hands after handling internal components and motherboards and avoid inhalation of fumes if heating the solder. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov

Should I be worried about this? I don't remember seeing this when I first bought my motherboard. What precautions should I take?

Am I making this a bigger deal than it should be?

 

[bjornl]

The disclosure is new, the contents in solder is not. Nominal exposure from building a PC should be harmless. If you are fearful, get some latex gloves.

 

[JalYt_Justin]

You shouldn't be worried. Some tech manufacturers use lead soldering. It's not particularly dangerous or harmful in any meaningful way, it's just that it contains lead, and California law mandates that it must have a warning label because of that.

I got it on a Rosewill case (that I ended up returning) because it had a PCB that used lead soldering for LED lighting. Truthfully nothing to worry about.

 

[Solandri]

Proposition 65 was a silly law passed by popular referendum in California in 1986.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_65_(1986)

On the face of it, it sounds like a good idea. The problem is most people vastly underestimate how dangerous the real world is (the most dangerous thing you do every day is get into your car). All Prop 65 resulted in is every store having to buy a little sign with the Prop 65 warning, thus making the sign useless.

There's a small group of lawyers who go around looking for businesses who don't have the sign (usually immigrant-owned mom & pop shops who didn't know about this silly law) and filing a lawsuit against them. They "settle" (extort is a better word) for a few thousand dollars.

So to cover their butts, companies will add the Prop 65 warning to everything that could in some conceivable way be hazardous to your health and could get them in trouble with these lawyers. In the case of leaded solder, it's inert and harmless. You have to ingest it, or heat it and inhale it before it can hurt you. Prop 65 doesn't care about distinctions like that. It's all or nothing, needlessly frightening people like it has you. (I like to joke that every exterior doorway should have a Prop 65 warning on it because sunlight has been proven to cause cancer.)

(Lead is added to solder to give it more flexibility. Led-free solder has been traced as the cause of many electrical failures due to the solder joint fracturing. Including an airliner crash which killed 162. Risks like lead in solder never occur in a vacuum. There's always a trade-off when you give up functionality for some perceived safety.)

 

[Zerk2012]

It's been almost 4 with my gaming PC and recently I've decided it was time to upgrade! The new intel 8th generation processor caught my attention and might as well consider buying under that category, the only problem is when I started searching for compatible motherboards all of them seem to have the same label. For example with the ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming LGA 1151 (300 Series), under the specifications it says:

WARNING: Products with exposed solder may contain lead, a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm. Please wash hands after handling internal components and motherboards and avoid inhalation of fumes if heating the solder. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov

Should I be worried about this? I don't remember seeing this when I first bought my motherboard. What precautions should I take?

Am I making this a bigger deal than it should be?

Their using the same thing they always used so no biggie. Unless your handling lead all day long (assuming your not eating it) their nothing to stress over.