On 2002-06-27 15:51, garycrosby wrote:
I think whistle toxicity is an important issue - I don’t want to get poisoned because of some instrument I play. However, the chances of this happening I think are grossly overestimated.
Agreed. They are at least grossly overstated.
Brass is toxic because it contains lead and copper. The mouthpieces of brass insturments are plated with gold or silver to avoid “brass poisoning”.
Actually, brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, though there may perhaps be trace amounts of lead present as an impurity. I don’t know of any all-brass pennywhistles that have plated mouthpieces, including my Copeland. What would they be plated with that would be less harmful than the brass? Gold, perhaps, or platinum? Silver is toxic, but used to be used in metallic form in medical appliances.
Copper is toxic because … well, because its copper and the salts are toxic (they damage the liver). Yet, the plumbing in older houses is copper (the house I live in now is copper pipe with lead-soldered joint).
In trace amounts, copper is also a nutrient. Scale appears to be important here. If the soldering is done competently in the water pipes, the danger from it is slim to none. Lead generally only mobilizes in very soft waters anyway, so if you have hard water it will stay put.
Aluminum is toxic and is possible linked to Alzheimers. Yet we still drink Coke out of alumimun cans (even though Coke is horrible acidic and eats away at the can) and we cook our acidic spagetti sauce in aluminum pots.
The latter can be a problem if one is not using something like Calphalon cookware which has a coating that prevents contact of the food with the pot. One wonders parenthetically about the coating, but we’ll let that slide. Coke is packaged in aluminum cans, as are many other beverages, but the liquid does not come in contact with the metal because of a coating which completely seals the inside of the can. ( I used to work summers in a factory where cans are made. ) It has been known for many decades that one should never put soft drinks or fruit drinks in aluminum canteens.
What’s my point? Virtually all material is toxic if exposure levels are high enough. The question is whether exposure to toxins from a whistle is going to make a difference considering the toxic-laden environemnt we live in. Personally, I doubt it.
Presumably we all know how toxic mercury is, but if you’ve ever had a tooth filled it is, or was, done with dental amalgam. Amalgam is a mixture of gold or silver with mercury ( they dissolve in it ). Those little black beads you spit out are droplets of mercury, and some of it gets swallowed. Fortunately, it generally passes through the system and out the other end.
Where mercury, lead, and other metals really pose a danger is when they occur in organic compounds. This is why the tetra-ethyl lead used for so many years as an anti-knock compound in gasoline was so dangerous. Those of you who remember the smell of the exhaust from an engine burning leaded gasoline know it has a sweet odor. That sweet odor was the lead. The Roman gentry used to mull their wine in lead bowls because it imparted a sweet taste to the drink, and probably poisoned themselves while they were at it.
As Gary indicates, it isn’t worthwhile to get too excited about metal or PVC whistles.
