Ok David and Chris,

My apologies if I sounded more sure of myself than I have any right to be in
that third (penultimate) paragraph, it was open conjecture.  I was drawing
from statements from a Chinese manufacturer about (his opinion of)
Japanese-based OEM's motives in support of the LF changes. It was not "made
up from whole cloth" but not based on a valid statistical sample, either.  

I joined this forum over 2 years ago, thinking LF was a good move, but have
become a little frustrated that the main argument for doing it is that it is
too late to question it.  I've got the Univ. of Stuttgart and other
presentations which don't make a very strong argument for mining more silver
and tin.   I'm still among the listserve's most ardent defenders of
recycling, which is based on sound mineral and metals management.  But for
leadfree solder, it appears to be based on "end of pipe" justifications
(leachate in landfill), which are pretty poor excuses to expand silver or
tin mining.  Perhaps the apparent absence of environmental justification
leads people like me to guess openly what the reasons for changing mineral
sourcing policy might be..  

A few decades ago, when (state of) Wisconsin cheese manufacturers used
yellow food coloring, and (state of) Minnesota cheese makers did not,
Wisconsin's legislature banned the sale of white cheese and Minnesota banned
the sale of yellow cheese.  The US Supreme Court overturned both laws, but
not before they gave rise to my generation of conspiracy theorists...

Regards,

Robin Ingenthron
802-382-8500
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask] 

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