I thought the subscribers of this forum would be interested to know about the forward-thinking activities of Yamaha Music Indonesia, which in addition to initiating production of lead-free electronic pianos in April to comply with RoHS is (apparently voluntarily) producing lead-free non-electrical musical instruments as well. According to a press release sent to me by Matt Aoki, (can be seen at http://groups.yahoo.co.jp/group/Eco-Information/message/111)

The Yamaha Group started producing wind instruments using lead-free solder in 2003. Parts of trumpets and flutes are now completely free of lead solder. To attain this, Yamaha studied for many years and finally succeeded in developing a proprietary lead-free soldering technique, which maintains traditional sound quality and product quality.

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />I wish the report were more informative. Although the report does not explicitly say so, I think these wind instruments also do not contain halogenated flame retardants (don't know about their flammability). The report also does not have info on price or market share, nor does it say how much healthier the users of these instruments are.

 
Gordon Davy 
Baltimore, MD 
[log in to unmask]
410-993-7399 
 

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