About Lead - Was: Ongoing Discussions

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jean-Jacques Granas" <jjgranas@zigzag.pl>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 4:32 PM
Subject: About Lead - Was: Ongoing Discussions


> Hi all,
>
> That lead represents a health hazard is not a new idea. It is particularly
harmful to small children whose mental development seems to be hampered by
continued exposure to lead. Their liver seems to be at risk as well.
>
> This said, I wonder just how exposed lead in piano keys really is. Most
lead related health warnings concentrate on sources such as old stripped
lead paint, especially if scraped and sanded, thus producing harmful dust
containing lead that can be easily absorbed by the organism. Frankly
speaking, the inquisitive piano tech seems more at risk here to me.
>
> Be it as it may, this issue does not seem to me to be such a major
obstacle to proper action performance. Can not something else be substituded
for lead, steel for example ?
>
> Peace,
>
> Jean-Jacques Granas
> Warsaw
>

    Perhaps, but as I see it, the lead in piano parts is seldom disturbed.
It's not exposed to the player or the technician in most circumstances.  It
just sits there, and unless you're sanding it, rubbing it, putting your
fingers to your mouth or eyes, breathing the dust, etc., it's pretty benign.
Only when you have to change key leads or level keys with those lead weights
might it be a concern.  Then use gloves.  Shaving key leads produces
shavings that, being heavy, fall away, and these can be swept up and
disposed of.  I imagine that even if you're sanding them, most of the dust
falls downward rather than up into the air.  Wear a dust mask or respirator.
It's not asbestos or a toxic gas.
    But yes, maybe some substitute could be found for future pianos, but
I'll bet lead will still be used for quite some time.  Steel weights would
work; they'd just be a little bigger for the same amount of weight.
    --David Nereson, RPT