I did some reading, and it seems the rosin flux smoke is not good for you either, as well as the risk of lead content in the smoke due to the presence of lead oxides on the surface of the solder. Lead free solder smoke is nearly as bad... soldering for 15 mins exposes you to a whole day's allowance for several compounds.
Bottom line, an extractor is important for your health if you are doing more than very minimal soldering...
Is there any references for that where I can learn more about it?
hehe there isnt yet because solder fume extractors and hepa lobby doesnt wanna tells you the truth , all this filtration units are signed as they remove up to 99,999% 0,3um dust particles while this dust inst exactly what is damage yours health
i did started with solder fume filters 5 year ago diy versions for past these years i did many experiments with them - and in short i can say about what is the most important to clean from soldering process:
- small particles of gas (formaldehydes toulenes phenols acids) + lead gas (not easy to clean by standard activated carbon)
-large paticles of dust ! -easy to clean by low MERV dust class filters F7 - F9
the hepa in these units in basic reality is just because "it is" this filters remove very small particles of dust which in these manufactory menanings are the most important particles to clean because they going to yours bloodstream and doing whorst of deffects "or can do in future"
but this is absolutely no truth and if we meaning there soldering process filtration and whats is exactly damaging you i list there:
-lead gas (not dust !) cause symtopms like fevers metallic taste in mouth memory loss problems with concentration the lead particles have 0,2um - 0,5um wheres part is dust and other part is gas , if you wherent very allergic like me you propably wont fell these deffects from lead soldering process but this gas really exist i did many experiments on carbon filters i mentioned about this in previous posts
all of these symptoms comming from lead gas , then where the hell is the "whorst" killing microparticles of dust cleaned by hepa ?! - just in hepa lobby fairy tales
-large particles of dust from solder cause usually cough (easy to clean by cheap F7 - F9 prefilters)
all above mentioned smallest particles of gas are hard to clean with standard activated carbons , they need speciall impregnated carbons with oxidisers or activated alumina threatted by kmno4 oxidiser - all these vapours of fluxes need this except suposedly lead gas
as about lead gas i found certain informations from google about what kind of carbon use municipal waste manufactories for clean heavy metals they use active cokes and what is so funny these active cokes are much more cheaper than activated carbon , while kmno4 alumina is much more expensiff
i am working on new filters these will include alumina kmno4 + activated carbon + active cokes they will be very silent by comparable to commerciall extractors + sucking less power + have better filters and soon on this forum i show my new project (but before that ill also check about is alumina kmno4 could remove lead gas effectivelly) and write there results
oh and i forget there about most important microparticles to clean - cleaned by hepa filters , in these lobby stories whats they cause or "could cause" in future is basically nothing !!! go search in google certain posts on HVAC forums about hepa filtration reality "its been confirmed about large particle dust cause much more health problems than smaller particles <0,3um" these smaller particles which can be absorbed by hepa could cause maybe 10 - 15 % symptoms by comapring to large dust particles and they offcourse "could" in future
i solder by using gas + dust filters except hepa for many year and i never fell any microparticles problems nor didnt fell any deffects after few years
in future means about - maybe i will die on another health issuess untill i even start felling deffects from <0,3um dust microparticles
and btw. i forget to add some of high-end commerciall filters have also included alumina balls threatted by kmno4 to use for laser fumes extraction because plastic or pvc are also small (part of gas) particles and activated carbon isnt enough to catch them all and clean
btw2 the hakko FA430 have less carbon than weller zero smog and thats why zero smog is better - in short nope.. the difference is as follow:
hakko FA430 have just activated granular carbon and can absorb only odours (and maybe 10 - 15% of small flux particles) while the weller zero smog uses pelletised carbon + pelletised carbon impregnated by kmno4 potassium permagnate known as puratex purafil also alumina balls uses same oxidiser and could remove all flux vapours (depending on how much of imregnated media contains these filters)
kmno4 is not easy to buy in small ammount across europe but easy to find+buy from china sellers