Rosin Allergy?

Erik S

Erik S

Well-known member
I've had recurring skin and joint problems with my right hand for a while. If I don't solder anything for a month it clears up, and as soon as I do some soldering it comes back. I've repeated this process enough times to be pretty confident about the correlation, and rosin exposure to the hand I hold the iron with is my best guess as to the cause.

It's a problem I was confused about for a long time, then in denial about for a while, then just depressed about. My hand is good right now, and I've been avoiding the pedal bench, but I've got a lot of pedals left to build, and it's time to figure something out.

It could be as simple as gloving up whenever I do any soldering. I guess that's the next thing I'll try.

Curious if anyone else has had reactions from soldering, tried synthetic rosin solder maybe?

Side note- I have a pretty good snot reaction anytime I cut up pine, so a reaction to pine rosin would make some sense.
 
Certainly, chemicals can cause contact dermatitis or contribute to conditions like eczema, but I am not sure that it would contribute to joint pain.

I would try using the glove for a period of time to help prove the point. A trial of a steroid cream, like Cortaid, which you can get over the counter is a reasonable reaction/treatment to the rash.

All this stated, dermatology is not my forte; my specialty is the nervous system.
 
Synchrony Pedalworks said:
Certainly, chemicals can cause contact dermatitis or contribute to conditions like eczema, but I am not sure that it would contribute to joint pain.

I would try using the glove for a period of time to help prove the point. A trial of a steroid cream, like Cortaid, which you can get over the counter is a reasonable reaction/treatment to the rash.

All this stated, dermatology is not my forte; my specialty is the nervous system.
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Thanks for commenting. If the glove method isn't totally successful I'll definitely look into some 'roids!
 
Erik S said:
Thanks for commenting. If the glove method isn't totally successful I'll definitely look into some 'roids!
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Use these
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For real I’d look also into combined exposure. I’ve understood current view on allergies have to do with exposures stacking up and exceeding thresold with symptom occure. F.ex. food allergy mechanism can be triggered by proteins resembling enough the one you’re allergic to and could trigger symptoms appearing, but even the season and exposure from pollen lowers threshold for getting symptoms. Time to think if there is something you eat which makes you more vulnerable for pine resin? Gotta give up and stop abusing pesto with pine seeds etc.

I have no speciality on these things particulary, but just gather things and make some views to be a shitty jack of all trades. Helps with my job in healthcare setting! :D
 
That's really weird. Rosin is at the core of solder, so assuming you feed it in with your left hand, you still wouldn't be touching it. Your right hand shouldn't come in contact with solder or rosin at all. I'd think that the fumes would affect you more than anything, but it doesn't make sense that the pain would be solely in your right hand.

Maybe a glove? Maybe cleaning your soldering iron handle so when you hold it you're not coming into contact with any fume material that may have settled on it? I'm not so sure about that though as the pain is in your joints.

Do you have pain when you use your right hand for anything else? Like welding or anything strenuous? Or even using a mouse? It's possible that holding the soldering iron is triggering some sort of repetitive muscle injury from doing something else. You might try changing the shape of the handle of your iron by making it bigger (with a foam cylinder etc) so when you hold it your hand doesn't fall into the same position. Or try switching up your hands and use your left hand for the iron (assuming you're right handed).
 
falco_femoralis said:
That's really weird. Rosin is at the core of solder, so assuming you feed it in with your left hand, you still wouldn't be touching it. Your right hand shouldn't come in contact with solder or rosin at all. I'd think that the fumes would affect you more than anything, but it doesn't make sense that the pain would be solely in your right hand.

Maybe a glove? Maybe cleaning your soldering iron handle so when you hold it you're not coming into contact with any fume material that may have settled on it? I'm not so sure about that though as the pain is in your joints.

Do you have pain when you use your right hand for anything else? Like welding or anything strenuous? Or even using a mouse? It's possible that holding the soldering iron is triggering some sort of repetitive muscle injury from doing something else. You might try changing the shape of the handle of your iron by making it bigger (with a foam cylinder etc) so when you hold it your hand doesn't fall into the same position. Or try switching up your hands and use your left hand for the iron (assuming you're right handed).
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Your right hand gets close enough to get particulate matter on it, you're essentially ionising it with the soldering iron. But yeah RSI is definitely very plausible too.

+1 for Nitrile gloves, I work with chemicals a lot and these are normally the best choice, bonus if you can get the ones with a grip / fingerprint on the finger ends.
 
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falco_femoralis said:
That's really weird.
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It is really weird! That’s partly why it took me so long to accept it could be related to soldering. It’s been happening every winter (when I normally do all my soldering) since I started building pedals in 2023.

RMI is an interesting thought, but I don’t think it fits. My technique is pretty gentle and I only build up one board at a time, so the duration is not terribly long. RMI in my wrist is why I gave up blacksmithing. One of the exciting things about pedal building for me was that it seemed like a good safe long term hobby for a frail old man of 45 🤣

I did a little soldering last night with gloves on. So far so good. 🤞🏻
 
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