Here's the scoop. Liquids much over their freezing point have a small
but increasing vapor pressure.

Take water for example - you are not shocked to hear that room
temperature water puts water vapor into the air.

It is the same with lead. Or mercury, or tin or whatever....

Lead that has melted puts a little vapor into the air - the hotter the
lead, the more vapor.

At the boiling point, the vapor pressure gets as high as atmospheric
and can drive out all the air....

It doesn't take much to impact kids' intelligence.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK

On Mon, 3 Oct 2005 09:59:34 -0700, "Gordon"
wrote:

The boiling point of pure lead is 3180F. The melting point is 621.43F.
Vaporization will not occur at the melting point as you yourself pointed out
with your comment about the microchip industry.
///
"Rosalie B." wrote in message
.. .
"Gordon" wrote:

How does melting lead expose you to lead? There are NO lead fumes


There ARE lead fumes. I once sampled in an old garage where they were
melting lead to make flower arranging frogs (those things with the
spikes in them that sit in the bottom of the vase so the flower stems
don't fall over). The whole place was so permeated with lead that
they could not even tear it down without making it hazardous waste.
Great overexposures to lead.
///
grandma Rosalie