Soldered Pans: is the lead hazard real?

[Banjo]

I've read most of what I think's here on this subject, and it seems to say that there is some risk, but that if you're careful about cleaning it's manageable.

I'm asking because a producer near here has some nice looking (to me anyway) SS drop flue pans that he won't use because they're soldered. He doesn't know whether they're lead free or not. We didn't talk much about them, but generally he didn't think they're worth using because of the risk (said he wouldn't give them to me, and expressed concern about other people selling their older soldered pans). Now he's in it commercially, whereas I'm just doing it for myself (well for now anyway :lol: :lol: :lol: ).

I want to (need to) move to something faster than my current setup, and think his pan would be just the size for me. I'm trying to decide whether to have another shot at seeing if he'd sell/trade the pan, or stick with "plan A" of making up a pan over the summer (as it sounds like a great "justification" to try TIG welding).

So, what's the general consensus on soldered pans? Seems to me a fair number of people here have them. Has anyone had their syrup tested for lead?

Thanks in advance, Andrew

[rschoo]

Just my opinion but people have been making syrup on soldered english tin for over a hundred years. There's been no mass human extinction in eastern north america yet.

[Fred Henderson]

If all you ate was food cooked in lead solder pans it might amount to a very small problem when you reached the age of 90 or so. I say use it.

[royalmaple]

Banjo-

Take a look in the previous messages, just do a search and you will see many people talking about soldered pans. I have not had any myself but I think the trick is to not brush the hell out of the solder when cleaning to get it shiney. Keep the solder finish looking dull.

Should be all set, and perhaps if you do grow and want to sell your syrup you'll buy a whole new rig and won't have to worry about it anyway. I would say that solder is probably one of the least crude methods of making syrup you would find if you looked around.

Poke around a bit and you should see some pointers pretty quickly.

[cheesegenie]

I felt kinda guilty about the lead thing, so this year bought a new
tig welded pan. The other guys are likely right, that amount might
never hurt you. If you only use it yourself fine, but I like to share
so.....Also a hundred years ago would peanuts be banned from schools
like today, can kill a kid. Where did that come from? In Ontario the
lead content on syrup that is allowed is very low. A buddy had to dump
and pull from stores his, last year, after being checked. He has all modern
equipment and figures it's coming from the ground ,through the tree.If the
pan was made after 1995, could be lead free solder, if Dom.Grimm.

[brookledge]

You should not sell or use the syrup yourself if it has over 250 ppb. I had mine tested a few years ago and it was under 50ppb. Personally I feel that you should not serve it to kids if it has lead as they are more suseptable to it. As far as adults I don't think they consume enough syrup to make a difference. When my association or state can't remember did random testing some producers where two to three times the recommended levels.
Here are a few links
http://www.vermontagriculture.com/lead.htm
http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/7038.htm
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/LeadOut.pdf

Also you can go to a hardware store and get a simple test kit to test for lead. Put some on the solder and it turns color if it has lead. I think someone else said this but to help reduce the lead if you have lead is to leave alittle nitre (sugar sand) on your pans around the solder.
Hope this helps
Keith

[super sappy]

I asked this question to 3 instructors at a spring seminar in vermont this year.They said that you will be ok if you only use water for cleaning and do not scrub with any type of abrasive cloth or pad.Niter will seal the lead.I do realize that a lead health hazzard exists (2 employes were over exposes wile doing a job for me a few years ago) But like everything else do your homework ,use your head then make the choice that is right for you.-ss

[lew]

We boil on an old flue pan soldered with 50/50 solder. The pan is at least 25-30 years old. When the state tested our syrup for lead, it tested Less than 35 ppb. That was the lowest they could test to at the time, and ours was under that threshhold. I don't scrub the solder joints and just use water to boil off the build up.

[Russell Lampron]

You will probably get more lead in your syrup from using old galvanized sap buckets and storage tanks than you will from the evaporator itself. The way to minimize lead is to not let it sit in the buckets or storage tanks too long. Evaporator pans will get a coating of sugarsand over the solder to seal it so that the lead can't leach out.

Russ

[digman_41]

Banjo
There is an excellent article in the October 2003 Maple Syrup Digest.
If you could get a copy of this it would answer all your questions.
It is a good idea to reduce lead content as much as possible, often the lead comes from items in the syrup process other than the pan. Some of the things sugarmakers overlook, especially small producers are the use of plastic trash cans, garden hoses,pumps, and sap stored too long in galvanized containers. Unless the pans you mention are soldered with 100% lead I would think they would make acceptable syrup. There are a lot of good suggestions in the response to your question.
Mark

[maplehound]

Banjo,
Keep in mind as well that the standerds that Vermont has placed on Lead in the syrup is now lower than most states alow in there drinking water. I do agree that we need to be aware of this problem but I for one don't drink my syrup like Ido water so I thnk I don't have much to worry about. I once heard a man from Canada talk ( can't remember who) He said Vermont is trying to be holyer than God on this. I don't think I would go that far but think about it. Why do we have to set our lead levels lower than what is permited in our drinking water :?:
Ron

[Pete33Vt]

I have never heard of any problems because of lead, I may be wrong but can't you get some lead out of the trees themselves?

[Mike]

The story I heard on the so called lead problem was somone used there evaporator to make some apple cider......It was a soldered pan and the acid from the apples released more lead than normal....I think the state tested the cider and found the lead levels high..So as most local goverments, they did a overe kill on the matter....A lot of these pans have been used for years, and are still being used....I hear the syrup that is tested, is safe.........Now you know the rest of the story..... :wink: (if anyone has heard anything different it would be interested to hear about it)

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I would think with these older pans that most of the lead leached out the first year or two they were used and it should be minimal at this point in their life. :?