Please forgive me if this offends anyone, that is not my intent.

I have been reading the messages on this mailing list and on this
topic for a longtime and for the most part I have kept silent.
However, I really get upset by those who keep telling us that it is
too late to turn back now and we might as well just give in and do
something that we have good reason to believe is wrong.  It is never
too late to stand up for the truth.

It is crazy to concentrate on the 1% or less of the lead used in
electronic solder and to basically ignore the big lead problems like
CRT's and batteries.

It is even more crazy to replace this 1% with materials that could
potentially be even more hazardous to the environment.

Then to do so because of marketing reasons and because we believe the
ball is rolling to fast is just wrong, wrong, wrong.

Each of us has a responsibility to stand up for what we believe to be
the truth.  We can make a difference, particularly if the
organizations that we belong to such as the IPC, IEEE, IMAPS, SMTA.
etc. will promote a fair evaluation of both sides of the issue based
on facts.  I hope that the rumor that the IPC is considering
reevaluating its position is true.  I never liked their approach of"
it's inevitable so we might as well bite the bullet and give in".  If
they do carry through with a reevaluation I for one will applaud them.

Rick Etchells

"Any Science, we should insist, better than any other discipline, can
hold up to its students and followers an ideal of patient devotion to
the search for objective truth, with vision unclouded by personal or
political motive."  - Sir Henry Hallett Dalt

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