Michael,
Can you honestly think that banning lead from electronics is going to give us all a better environment? The lead-free question is what I have a problem with...
You post references many links from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, which may be considered almost extremist in a sense.
There's many, many other links that I could post that shows that lead in electronics is not harming the environment at all, but the push to eliminate lead will do much more overall harm to the environment...so your links to the SCVT mean nothing to me.
I don't disagree with the mindset of trying to recycle, or cut down on the stuff that all of us throw away...(disposable diapers is one topic that provides for some good debate). But those of you that advocate to ban a material (lead) from electronics that hasn't been shown to leach into water supplies, or cause any other enviromental harm, is reckless in my opinion.
I don't disagree with the intent of RoHS, but I think that there should have been more thought, and scientific evidence provided before turning our industry upside down with this lead-free crap.
But money talks, and there are those that stand to make a lot of money from this switch. Tin producers to be sure, equipment manufacturers (wave solder manufacturers), consultant companies that have set-up seminars and the like, to "help" everyone "jump on board" to the tune of hundreds and thousands of dollars. Not to mention the increased scrap that will result from trying to build electronics at the higher temperatures required by lead-free materials, and the reduced reliabilty and life. So my PC quits after 3-years, so what? I'll throw it away and buy a new one.
I think this "Lead-free" stuff will be shown in history to be one of the biggest mistakes that has been recently made in our industry.
-Steve Gregory-
Howell Electronic Services <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I disagree with Mr. Brooks, not only because lead was recognized as a
health hazard and banned from fuels in 1970, but also because the
manufacturing changes he refers to will include having to use parts with
bigger pitch to avoid those dreaded tin whiskers. Perhaps Mr. Brooks is
parroting Steven Jobs
charges of
financial ruin from impmenenting RoHS.
Dell Computers and HP already endorse the principle of the "Phase out
the use of potentially hazardous substances
consistent with the recent European ROHS directive and other worldwide
standards as they become law"
The problem is not just confined to RoHS implementation or lead,
either. Hazardous materials
are a way of life in
the electronics industry, and the IPC Designers Council Forum is as good
a forum as any to discuss this. In fact, the IPC DC may want to take a
proactive role in introducing less hazardous
materials to designers. After
all, findings
show that the
US is already behind in developing solutions to counteract the dirty
side of (our) computer industry.
From the article High Tech Goes Green:
"It's long been
known, but little discussed in polite high tech circles, that
information-age technology is not the clean industry it claims to be.
Personal computers, for example, are astonishingly resource-intensive to
produce. Manufacturing a single PC can generate 139 pounds of waste and
involves a witch's brew of chemicals linked to high rates of cancer and
birth defects among workers and communities. The solution to the
high-tech toxics trap is coming not from the US, where companies sell
the most computers, but from Europe. The European Union has begun
requiring manufacturers to take responsibility..." and "US manufacturers
may find it makes less and less sense for them to produce a dirtier
version of their products for the US market."
Even the state of California has legislation
to deal with e-waste and phase-out of hazardous materials, in the
absence of meaninful direction from Washington DC. Does the IPC-DC have
a position on this legislation? If the IPC should adopt Mr. Brooks'
position on hazardous wastes, I for one, would be happy to show
Designers other organizations where they can find, and possibly even
lobby for, ecologically responsible materials.
Regards-
Michael Howell
IPC/DC member #1317807
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