In discussing the above topic Chris James wrote "If the whole of the electronics industry had work in unison on this issue from the outset then we would not be facing the predicament we are now and would possibly have been able to comply."
I would go further and say that I believe that the whole electronics industry, upon learning what the environmental activists had in store with their proposed directive, should have worked in unison to go over the heads of the bureaucrats in Belgium with an advertising campaign appealing to ordinary EU consumers. I believe that if they had paid for this advertising by no more than one percent of what they are now having to spend to comply (a huge advertising budget), they would have been able to thwart what eventually, due to lack of vigorous opposition, became a juggernaut.
The environmental basis for the RoHS directive is known to be untrue. Who today believes that RoHS will prevent even one case of lead poisoning? Also. the idea that there is a consumer demand for Pb-free electronics has never been demonstrated. Even if there had been a latent consumer preference for Pb-free electronics, a little truth in advertising could have reversed it, and might well have overcome the activist agenda by exposing its lack of credibility.
Incidentally, I was much encouraged by the candor of Robin Ingenthron, a self-described environmentalist, when he told this forum recently that there are a number of environmentalists who believe that the "ban on lead in solder is the worst environmental law ever passed." (It's a pity that in spite of their belief they - unlike Robin - feel that they must "just go along, so as not to discredit the eco political front." In so doing, they demonstrate a greater loyalty to their cause than to truth, and further damage their credibility. Refusing to admit it when you know you are wrong is an all-too-human tendency, but it is unwise to indulge it.)
The industry associations, in my opinion, let their members down by not going on the offensive against the environmental activists' deception in the mid-to-late 1990's when there was still time. Curiously, when in the early 1990's, they opposed the Reid bill in the US Senate, which would also have prohibited lead in electronic products, they were successful. Perhaps someone else can explain what looks like a loss of nerve.
Gordon Davy
Baltimore, MD
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410-993-7399
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