hidden dangers of ewaste

Is it safe to touch circuit boards with bare hands. Could I be poisoning myself? I hear of all the toxic metals in the components. I'm gonna get some good gloves. What do you think?

Thanks
Copycat

If it wasn't safe you would have IT guys with cancer by the thousands. I have touched circuit boards and wire inside computers pretty much every day of my life since I was 17 or so. And now days since its my job and my side job I touch it even more. I think the only time you would have any health issues would be if you were destroying the boards somehow to extract the stuff. Its that reason I sell the components to someone else to do the dangerous stuff.

I am sure it's not good, make sure you are not eating, drinking or touching your face, eyes or mouth when breaking down & wash your hands after! Get gloves! It's like when fishing and you crimp the lead weight down with your teeth! Not good!

I've been poking around inside computers for years, sometimes even with them plugged up and running, and I've never had any problems with em yet any problems with em yet any problems with em yet

There's gotta be a joke in there somewhere...

I would think long as you dont lick the board or use it for a dinner plate you should be fine.

Yeah the Mechanic Gloves are a must. After I scraped the skin off my knuckles on the sharp points and cut myself on a shard piece of metal unplugging a CD Rom I decided to get me a pair. Really the only danger I have ever had breaking them down is from me bleeding on something (usually my shirt).

Originally Posted by Craasher

Yeah the Mechanic Gloves are a must. After I scraped the skin off my knuckles on the sharp points and cut myself on a shard piece of metal unplugging a CD Rom I decided to get me a pair. Really the only danger I have ever had breaking them down is from me bleeding on something (usually my shirt).

Learn something new and googled mechanic gloves and bought a pair thanks just what I need as my hand looking like it went thru a window lol.

You can never go wrong wearing your PPE.

This what the EPA has turned us into, a bunch of paranoid fools, unless your eatting the boards for dinner you have nothing to fear. The only way the EPA can controll things to declair everything as toxic. It's fine to buy these things but if you want to get rid of them you have to pay for the dissposal. MONEY-MONEY-MONEY Oh one more thing, in this bussness if you don't blead once a day your not doing anything. just sayen

If you are breaking them down in large quantities use precautionary measures. I've never heard of gloves hurting anyone. Unless you have a latex allergy.

You'll be fine. If you're a wuss and cant handle the cuts, buy gloves. Other than that, youre fine. Dont eat the dern boards and you won't die.

Does the power supply hold a electrical charge? A guy I was buying some server boards from said that that they can and people have died from it?

Originally Posted by justjunkin

Does the power supply hold a electrical charge? A guy I was buying some server boards from said that that they can and people have died from it?

They can hold a charge for a few seconds after you unplug them. Sometimes when working on a Desktop you can unplug it from the wall and then hit the power button to discharge all the residual power. This will sometimes fix issues with power problems (I have no idea why it works it just does every once in a while). But the charge is small and would barely tickle you if it shocked you and it fades fast. It definitely wouldn't kill anyone. Also they way they are built your not touching any bare wires or exposed power conductive areas.

One other thing the only place where you would get 110v from is inside the power supply if you were taking them apart. Where the power leads come out the power has been stepped down to 12v, 5v, and 3.3v rails.

The caps in a power supply usually bleed out across the rest of the circuit within a minute. Not much to worry about here.

Where you will see large capacitance that can remain stored for long times are in CRT type monitors and TVs. The voltage in monitors can hurt lots and in the right conditions can kill.... do some research on that... there are several threads here addressing this issue. There are several members here that have been bit and still live to laugh about it.