Hi again Pratap,

Thank you for your added comments. You make some very valid points. I don't
think any of us here are far apart philosophically relative to the need to
protect workers and the environment.

I am aware of the reported problems in San Jose but I'm pretty certain that
was related to solvents. If it was, in fact, about lead in electronic solder,
please provide more detailed information or a path to finding the unpublished
information.

Lacking any such scientific data, my concern and that of many others has been
and continues to be that the presumably well meaning EU parliament has taken
upon itself the task of eliminating lead from electronic solders around the
globe with no evidence of any harm from lead in electronics and no certainly of
the long term risk of harm to the environment associated with the alternatives
that they are going to allow to be used in lead's place. (We obviously agree
on looking for benefit the long term view)

We know, for example, that silver, one of the elements chosen to replace lead
in solder, is highly toxic to microbial life and fish larva (but they can't
afford to have lobbyist working on their behalf. ;-)

Of course, to this I suspect that the legislators would likely say that: "But
we are going to require recycling!" (which appears now to be the next step)
At which point a reasonable person must ask "Why then is it necessary to remove
lead from solder and with it 50 long years of manufacturing and reliability
history at lower cost with lower energy requirements and wherefrom no direct or
indirect harm has ever been shown?... Why then can't tin-lead solder also be
recycled?"

I cannot guess what their answer might be or know if the questioner would be
met with stony silence.

Most people knowledgeable on the subject seem to agree that lead-free is more
about marketing than about health and the environment. Read the IPC BOD's
position statement on lead-free for an example. The EU parliament appears to have
ignored their own scientific council and instead bought into mis- and/or dis-
information about electronic solders for what appear to be politically
expedient reasons (even though lead used in electronic solder application is less
than 0.5% of all the lead used annually).

Because of what we have all sadly seen happen to children who have eaten lead
pigmented paint, the EU parliament appear's to have convinced themselves with
absolute certainty that lead is always bad, always harmful ... unless it
protects us from radiation, starts our cars, ballasts our boats or balances our
wheels...

Again, I believe we are all like minded in the desire to protect the innocent
and potentially unwitting victims from the effect of toxic chemicals. I also
believe it is necessary to attack real problems of the world (war, hunger,
ignorance, renewable and sustainable resource streams generation, future green
energy resource needs) and not the contrived ones such as lead in electronic
solders which simply play well in today's "sound bite" media, especially in the
wake completely unrelated but continuing tragedy of children poisoned by eating
lead paint chips.

All that said, as an optimist, I don't believe that the research into
lead-free (over 1 billion dollars so far by some estimates) has been all that bad for
the industry. Maybe something really good will come from it and we are at
least expanding our knowledge and that I believe is good in and of itself.

Best regards,
Joe

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