Dear Colleagues
This is my 2nd request to some, first to others. Below you will find a July 16 email containing details of a proposed Life-Cycle assessment of Lead free solders being considered by EPA's Design for the Environment Group. IPC with EIA are trying to find companies that are willing to contribute to the industry portion of this program. I feel that this information is important to have so that the lead free alternatives of choice are not a target for ban in the future.
To date a number of companies have expressed interest in the program. These include:
IBM
Intel
Rockwell
Agere
Lucent
Pitney Bowes
Kodak
HP
Nokia
3M
I am seeking additional company interest at this time. In the near future we will be contacting these companies with more details on the program. If you feel that your company might be willing to participate in the funding of the industry portion of the program. please reply to me at [log in to unmask]
Best regards,
Dave Bergman, IPC
-----Original Message-----
From: David Bergman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: July 16, 2001 6:43 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [LF] Seeking interest in LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF LEADED AND
LEAD-FREE SOLDERS:
Dear Colleagues
IPC has been working with a small group of companies representing the
Electronics Industries Alliance on a proposed project to examine the
environmental impacts of lead vs. various lead free solders. As you know,
regulatory action in Europe is leading a lot of companies to plan future
movement away from tin-lead solder. We are concerned that there has not
been a real evaluation of the environmental impact of such a shift. As
detailed in the proposal below, we have approached EPA to work with us in
conducting a Life-Cycle Assessment of leading lead-free solders as well as
tin-lead solder as a baseline for comparison. EPA has approved the
project,
conditioned on an industry commitment for 50% of the funding.
We (EIA &IPC) are in the process of contacting interested parties regarding
their interest in helping to fund the project. If your company would
consider participating, please contact me at [log in to unmask], or Fern Abrams
at [log in to unmask]
Regards,
Dave Bergman, IPC
LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF LEADED AND LEAD-FREE SOLDERS:
BACKGROUND AND PROPOSED APPROACH
May 9, 2001
BACKGROUND
This project offers the opportunity to mitigate current and future risk by
allowing the electronics industry to move in the direction of solders that
pose the fewest risks and environmental impacts over their life cycle.
Currently, the U.S. electronics industry is facing significant legislative
and market pressure to phase-out the use of tin-lead solders and switch to
lead-free alternatives, and the electronics industry has decided to make
this switch. Such a change could have a broad impact on public health and
the environment, and managing the environmental impacts posed by this
change
is crucial to the long-term environmental sustainability of the U.S. and
global economy.
The European Union has focused on the potential risks associated with lead
solder, and the electronics industry has conducted a fair amount of
performance testing on the alternative solders. However, EPA, the
electronics industry, public interest groups, and many other organizations
and interested parties recognize that to date, no one has conducted a
comprehensive evaluation of the potential environmental impacts of the
lead-free solder alternatives. EPA's Design for the Environment (DfE)
Program is in a unique position to provide technical expertise to address
this important issue, based on DfE's experience in working with the
electronics industry and with life-cycle assessment methodologies.
Many companies, organizations, and individuals in the United States and
other countries have expressed interest in obtaining objective, detailed
information about the life-cycle impacts of lead-free solders. The
electronics industry has established a goal of moving to lead-free solder
within several years, and therefore is interested in knowing as soon as
possible which options present the fewest risks to both the environment and
public health. It is also crucial to determine the potential impacts of
the
most promising alternatives in order to determine whether any of these
solders may present significant risks or previously unrecognized
consequences through their use. In addition to the question of risk, other
issues, such as the availability of certain metals and potential
differences
in workplace exposures, need to be addressed. The use of alternative
solders will be a significant technological change for the electronics
industry, and they would like to be confident that choices they make within
the next few years will not later be found to pose important, unexpected
risks.
Public interest groups, including the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition,
support an analytical evaluation of the environmental impacts of
alternative
solders used in the electronics industry. While they would like lead
solders to be phased out as quickly as possible, they also want to ensure
that the electronics industry does not inadvertently select alternatives
that seriously impact the environment and public health. EPA's Office of
Solid Waste has also expressed its support for this evaluation, which will
help inform its work in addressing end-of-life issues associated with
electronic products. In addition, EPA Region IX supports the proposed
project and has made electronics risk management and recycling a key
regional priority.
The U.S. electronics industry is a $550 billion per year industry, and its
impact is destined to grow over the coming years. Currently, 20 million
pounds of tin-lead (SnPb) solder is used annually. According to NIST, the
U.S. industry stands to lose approximately $420 billion in a three-year
period following 2002, unless it is able to make a successful switch to an
alternative solder.
Risk Concern to the Environment, Community, Workers
The primary solder currently in use in the U.S. electronics industry is a
tin-lead alloy. Lead and lead compounds are toxic chemicals that persist
and bioaccumulate in the environment. Lead is a heavy metal that has been
linked to developmental abnormalities in fetuses and children that ingest
or
absorb lead. The Department of Health and Human Services has determined
that lead acetate and lead phosphate may reasonably be anticipated to be
carcinogens, based on animal studies. These compounds are of particular
concern because they remain in the environment for significant periods of
time, concentrate in the organisms exposed to them, and bioaccumulate
through the food chain.
There is significant concern related to the mining of lead, recycling of
leaded products, and the treatment and disposal of products containing
lead.
Lead is released into the air or groundwater during mining, treatment of
waste, and disposal. Worker safety issues have also been raised with the
use of tin-lead solder, due to possible workplace exposures. Exposure
occurs during manufacturing, and during recycling/re-manufacturing
processes.
It is also important to examine the potential differences in risks and
impacts that may be presented by the alternative solders. The following
are
examples of issues that should be addressed in an evaluation of the
solders:
· The higher operating temperatures of some of the lead-free solders may
increase the amount of hand soldering that is required.
· There may be differences in energy consumption for material production
and
soldering processes, because of their required operating temperatures.
· Some alternative metals, such as silver, are more resource and energy
intensive to mine than others.
· The presence of tertiary alloys may make recycling more challenging and
less attractive economically, leading to potential end-of-life stage
issues.
· Increased production of bismuth, a co-product of lead mining, is expected
to require an increase in lead production.
· The availability of some metals, such as bismuth, may not be great enough
to support the project demand for use in soldering applications.
· Some alternatives, such as silver, may have higher leachability than
lead, and may lead to aquatic toxicity concerns.
· Some lead-free solders "contaminate" the electronics wastestream, such
that it can no longer be recycled.
In light of these issues, and the electronics industry's plans to move away
from leaded solders, the industry and the DfE Program have discussed
evaluating the life-cycle environmental impacts of tin-lead solder and
several promising alternative solders. A proposed approach for the
life-cycle assessment of the solders is presented below. We expect that
the
information would be used by the electronics industry to select the
lead-free solders that work well for a given application, and that pose the
fewest risks to public health and impacts to the environment.
LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT STUDY APPROACH
Life-Cycle Assessment Components
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a process to evaluate the relative
environmental burdens and resource consumption associated with a product or
process. The life-cycle stages evaluated in an LCA begin with raw material
extraction and extend through processing, manufacture, use, and end-of-life
disposition. A traditional LCA has four components, which are discussed
below.
Goal Definition and Scoping
The first step in an LCA is to define the goals and scope of the project.
The goal definition and scoping document presents the purpose, goals,
boundaries, and assumptions anticipated in the study. For example, the
project team will identify the specific solder alloys and fluxes to be
evaluated and the life-cycle activities to be included in the life-cycle
inventory.
Life-Cycle Inventory (LCI)
The LCI is the quantification of material inputs and outputs from each unit
or sub-process within the product system life-cycle. The inputs/outputs
that are collected include raw materials, ancillary materials, and
energy/resources used. Outputs include air emissions, water effluents,
releases to land, primary products, and co-products. Assumptions and
modeled data are also used, as necessary.
Impact Assessment
The life-cycle impacts assessment does not determine the actual impacts but
links the data gathered from LCI to impact categories. It quantifies the
relative magnitude of contributions to the impact categories: ecotoxicity
impacts (aquatic and terrestrial); human health toxicity (occupational &
public, acute & chronic); resource consumption (renewable & non-renewable);
energy use; water use; landfill space use; global warming; ozone depletion;
photochemical smog; acidification; local air quality (PM10); water
eutrophication; local water quality (BOD, TSS, pH); and aesthetics (odor).
With regard to human health and ecotoxicity impacts, the project team would
evaluate all chemicals identified in the life-cycle inventory stage, both
those that are regulated and those that are not currently regulated.
Impact scores can be aggregated by different categories. For example,
global warming impacts can be aggregated for:
· one inventory item (e.g., CO2 release from a certain chemical);
· a process that includes contributions from several inventory items (e.g.,
electricity generation);
· a life-cycle stage that consists of several processes (e.g., product
manufacturing); or
· a product or materials (e.g., solder) over its entire life-span.
The LCIA will help identify risk reduction opportunities for product design
and chemical substitution changes.
Improvement Assessment
The information generated by the LCIA would allow the electronics industry
to perform improvement assessments of specific products, and redirect
efforts towards products and processes that reduce the release and use of
toxic chemicals, and that reduce risks to public health and the
environment.
Each electronics manufacturer could identify the importance of different
impact categories, and weight those categories accordingly when conducting
an improvement assessment.
Specific Life-cycle Assessment Tasks
A project team would be assembled with representatives from U.S. EPA, the
electronics industry and major trade associations, research and academic
institutions, and public interest groups. The project team would look to
contractors and/or academic institutions to conduct specific LCA tasks.
Conducting a life-cycle assessment for the solder alternatives is expected
to include the specific tasks described below.
1. Life-Cycle Scoping and Goal Definition
The project team will prepare a goal definition and scoping document that
will guide data collection and evaluation for the LCI and LCIA phases of
the
project. The document will include a statement of the purpose of the
study;
the system to be studied; the intended use of the results; limitations on
its use for other purposes; data quality goals; reporting requirements; and
the relevant type of review process. It will also describe the geographic
and temporal boundaries, system boundaries, data requirements, decision
rules, and other assumptions.
2. Life-Cycle Inventory Analysis
This task involves collecting data in order to quantify accumulated
environmental burdens (material inputs and outputs) from all stages in the
life of a product or material's industrial system, including resource
extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use, and disposition. Major
burden
categories include raw material and fuel inputs, and solid, liquid, and
gaseous emissions and effluents. Emissions of pollutant categories (i.e.,
VOCs, BOD, Nox, etc.) will also be quantified.
It is likely that most LCI data for the materials extraction processes,
and
for the manufacturing of major materials and chemicals (e.g., for use in
fluxes), will come from existing LCI databases. Solder alloy producers,
electronics assembly companies, electronic product manufacturers, and
electronic product recyclers will be the primary data sources for all other
processes and life-cycle stages.
3. Life-Cycle Impact Assessment
This task involves the translation of the environmental burdens identified
in the LCI into environmental impacts or risks. The project team will
enter
the LCI data into an LCA toolkit that will characterize the burdens and
assess their effects on human and ecological health, as well as other
effects such as smog formation and global warming. For the chemicals
identified in the LCI, hazard summaries will be developed. The hazard
summaries will include chemical properties and environmental fate
information, a summary of health hazard concerns, a quantitative
dose-response assessment, a summary of safety hazard concerns, and a
summary
of ecological concerns.
OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION
Leachability Study
The DfE Program and electronics industry representatives have discussed
conducting a study of the leachability of silver and other heavy metals
from
solder alloys, to assess the potential for aquatic toxicity concerns. This
study could be done concurrently with the LCA.
Performance and Cost
In addition to presenting the results of the life-cycle assessment for the
tin-lead and lead-free solders, we will provide an overview of performance
testing results and cost information, based on existing available data
provided by the electronics industry.
SCHEDULE AND PROJECT COST
The LCA study of tin-lead and lead-free alternative solders is expected to
take approximately three years to complete, with preliminary results
available after two years. The ability to meet this time frame will depend
in large part on the degree of commitment and involvement that the industry
partners bring to the project.
The projected cost for the LCA and leachability studies is $650,000.
Industry members and EPA staff have discussed sharing the cost of these
studies equally, and the Electronic Industries Alliance and IPC are now
interested in hearing from electronics industry members who would be
willing
to contribute to this effort.
***************************************************************************
David W. Bergman, CAE
Vice President Standards, Technology & International Relations
IPC
2215 Sanders Road
Northbrook, IL 60062-6135 USA
847-790-5340 Phone 847-504-2340 Fax
Mobile 847-867-1388
[log in to unmask]
www.ipc.org
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Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional
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