Keith

Apology accepted, thanks.

I will not pursue this thread farther.

Brian

[log in to unmask] wrote:
> Brian,
>
> As I am sure you would realise that e-mail was not intended to go onto
> the IPC forum.
> I wrote to Keach Sasako asking if the e-mail could be pulled but it
> seems that is not possible
>
> *In any case I apologise unreservedly* for my comments which I typed out
> at the end of a long day when my judgement was obviously not very good.
>
> I have great respect for your expertise in the field of cleaning and
> contamination testing and for the work that you did for the United
> Nations and others on the implementation of the Montreal Protocol.
>
> There is no acceptable excuse for what I wrote but I will explain that
> the points that prompted my injudicious choice of words related to your
> support of the suggestion of a conspiracy by tin producers to lobby the
> European Parliament to bring in legislation that would favour the tin
> market.    Like many other commodity suppliers the tin producers have at
> various times been tempted to try to manipulate the market but in every
> case the attempt has failed with disastrous financial consequences for
> the industry.  I do not think that you would find any support in the tin
> industry now for market manipulation.    They support organisations like
> Tin Technology that seek to increase the value of tin as a technical
> material but that is as far as it goes.   I really doubt that there is
> any evidence that the tin industry was involved in the RoHS legislation
> and it seems to me unhelpful to pursue conspiracy theories as an
> explanation of the move to lead-free.
>
> Your description of Mercedes Benz driving tin miners in Ipoh might have
> applied 30 years ago but these days the people driving Mercedes in Ipoh
> are probably property developers who would not be interested in a
> conspiracy to force the electronics industry to use high tin content
> lead-free solders.   It is a very long time since tin played an
> important role in the Ipoh economy.   The housing estates of the
> property developers are often built on what was tin mining land so that,
> sadly, if the rain forest of the Kinta Valley had not been cleared for
> tin mining it would have been cleared for housing.
>
> When viewed in a wider context is seems clear that the RoHS legislation
> is just part of a general move to eliminate lead from applications that
> _might _result in increased exposure of the general public to lead
> poisoning. It follows on from earlier action to remove or reduce lead in
> paint, gasoline, food cans, solder for potable water systems, PVC
> etc.     If anyone is to blame for the move to get lead out of
> electronics it is probably Senator Reid who brought a bill with that
> objective to the US congress in 1991.   While that bill did not get
> passed it rang an alarm bell that resonated around the world.    The
> issue had been put on the agenda and it was inevitable that there would
> eventually be legislation somewhere as awareness of health and
> environmental issues increased.   Many solder makers took that bill as a
> warning and started to look at lead-free solder options and of course it
> does not take long to realise that the practical options for lead-free
> solders are going to have to be high in tin.
>
> I will conclude with another sincere apology for my indiscretion and
> express my regrets for the hurt that my comment would undoubtedly have
> caused.
>
> Keith Sweatman

--
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