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March 2004

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Subject:
From:
Brian Ellis <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
(Leadfree Electronics Assembly Forum)
Date:
Wed, 10 Mar 2004 10:35:04 +0200
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (117 lines)
Yes, Joe, we all get panic-stricken when it comes to bonkers-bovines,
but the same disease in sheep (scrapie) has been around for ever
(possibly BSE is a trans-species form of scrapie) and that has not
stopped us eating mutton or lamb, has it? Nor does it stop people living
in Papua New Guinea, where a human form of the same disease, called
kuru, has been endemic since at least 150 years. Yes, it is human nature
to get all emotional when a few hundred people die from something
apparently new (cf. SARS and early AIDS). What we tend to forget are the
millions who die from malaria and other diseases, yet it doesn't stop
millions of tourists travelling to high-risk areas where these diseases
are endemic.

Same with rabies: the UK has had stringent quarantine laws to prevent
rabies entering the country. The result is that Brits tremble at the
very word and imagine that every dog and cat would become rabid within
roughly 10 milliseconds, biting people left, right and centre (and the
fox-hunting maniacs imagining their "sport" would be exterminated along
with the foxes). I lived in a country (Switzerland) which had a severe
wave of rabies crossing in the 60s to 80s. Yes, some animals were
infected but a reasonable prevention programme kept it easily under
control. Two persons actually died as a result of being bitten and this
was their own fault, as they did not seek medical help when they had
been bitten. Being a Brit, I learnt that the British attitude was
totally false as we CAN safely live with the disease and that the heavy
costs of the quarantine measures were money down the drain (they have
now been somewhat relaxed).

Other epidemics that we shrug off too easily are road deaths and those
from gunshot wounds, ~2,000,000/year world-wide for the latter: guns ARE
weapons of mass destruction! I won't single out a developed country with
the highest rate, lest you and the majority of members of this forum be
offended and accuse me of being a liberal tree-hugger.

It is all too easy for us to be blinkered and not see the wood for the
trees (please excuse the mixed metaphor). However, to return to the
topic, I'm all for reducing the use of toxics materials in electronics
***where this is practicable*** and for recycling as much as is
reasonably possible, but I'm totally opposed to regulations which are
costly to implement and are not founded on good science. LF solder is
one such example. And I say this as a person who has spent decades of
his life promoting sound environmental practices in the electronics
industry.

Brian

Joe Fjelstad wrote:

> To put the current effort to ban lead in electronic solders into another
> perspective (especially with regard to the first category preceded by "0" below),
> it is worth looking at another scare that has over the last ten years gotten a
> lot of press, Mad Cow Disease.
>
> Reproduced below is a listing of numbers that I came upon in reading a recent
> article in Popular Science. Their sources for the data are reproduced below.
>
> 10,410 ......... pounds of US beef recalled on December 23, 2003
>
> 125,000,000.... pounds of beef imported by the US from countries known to
> have cattle
>                         infected with BSE (AKA mad cow disease)
>
> 450 .........Calves killed thus far because of ties to a BSE (bovine
> spongiform ecephalopthy)
>
> 3 .............the number of hours to liquefy a BSE contaminated cow in
> liquid lye
>
> 6 ..............the number of hours to destroy the BSE prions in liquid lye
>
> 0 ..............Epidemiological papers that show a causal link between BSE
> and the human
>                   form of the disease known as Creutzfelt-Jakob disease (vCJD)
>
> 153............ The total number of cases of vCJD world wide
>
> 93 .............. the percentage of vCJD cases were reported in the UK
>
> 40............... the estimated maximum incubation period of vCJD in years
>
> 14................ the median time to death in months from the onset of
> symptoms
>
> 0.................. the number of cures for vCJD
>
> Sources: US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the CJD foundation,
> Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, US Dept of Agriculture, US Government
> Accounting Office, Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory, World Health
> Organization.
>
>
> On another matter more directly related, I have been told recently that the
> penetration of lead free in Japan has only reached 20% to date. Can anyone
> confirm or deny this?  I will accept confidential responses off line because I
> realize this is perhaps sensitive.
>
> Kind regards,
> Joe.
>
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>
>

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