By coincidence, I wrote an Internet Commentary for Soldering and Surface
Mount Technology Vol 17 No. 4 last week. This will be published on 30
September 2005, according to the schedule. This literally slams into the
  implementation of the RoHS and WEEE Directives, using Mr Bumble's
quote as the sub-title: "If the law supposes that ... the law is a ass -
a idiot". Unfortunately, copyright and pre-publication non-disclosure
forbid me from reproducing it here, but you may be interested to read it
when that issue of SSMT slams into your in-tray with a resounding thump.
Pity the deadline to publication interval is 3 months!

That having been said, my opposition to the RoHS Directive is based
mainly on environmental grounds. Now, as I understand it, European law
states that any Directive that has an impact on the environment or H&S
must have a risk assessment conducted. This never happened with RoHS or
WEEE because "funding was not available". I therefore contend that there
is a possibility that these Directives may be null and void. It would
require a lot of legal eagles to study whether my contention is valid,
followed by a case before the European Court of Justice to have a
judgement whether the European Commission committed an illegal act by
not having a Risk Assessment, which would overturn the Directives.
Obviously this would be a costly action, a wee bit more than my
retirement pension affords me, but somebody here (or the IPC European
Representative) may wish to make a preliminary enquiry into the
potential validity of my contention. If he thinks he has a case and
applies to the ECJ for a judgement, he may be able to obtain an
immediate suspended injunction ("effet suspensif") delaying the entry
into force of the Directives until after the scheduled judgement. A bon
entendeur, salut!

Brian

Stephen Gregory wrote:
> Mornin' Everyone!
>
> Yesterday I had one of our test technicians come to me and
> ask if I knew of any good reference articles about the pro's and
> cons of Lead-free solders.
>
> He's doing a assignment in his college class about manufacturing
> processes. I first went on my rant about how mis-guided this whole
> thing is, and then told him that I was sure I could find him some good
> references.
>
> I did a search and found one that I had never seen before, and after
> reading it, I think it's the best one I've read. Go to:
>
> http://www.cepelec.com/iso_album/leadfreehmiller.pdf
>
> It's 53-pages, and very, very good!
>
> Kind regards,
>
> -Steve Gregory-
> Senior Process Engineer
> LaBarge Incorporated
> Tulsa, Oklahoma
> (918) 459-2285
> (918) 459-2350 FAX
> __________________________________________________________________
> This message may contain information that is privileged and confidential to
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> If you are not the intended recipient, you may not copy, use or deliver
> this message to anyone.  In such event, you should destroy the message and
> kindly notify the sender by reply e-mail.
>
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