Davy:

I have to respectfully disagree with you that the reason "the
electronics industry did not mount effective opposition to the
directive when there was still time to have
an effect" was "that it wasn't so much reluctance to get labeled
as 'anti-environment' as it was unawareness of the issue."  I'm sorry,
but that is just not true.  The electronics industry new as early as
1993 that the EU was preparing RoHS legislation - they have lobbied it
for 13 years via their wide variety of lobbying vehicles such as AeA
and law firm Allen & Overy.  If you want names of the individuals
involved I can give you a list.  I have documentation of their
efforts.  Besides, Hewlett Packard reportedly had 100 people working on
RoHS compliance at one time and Sony certainly sunk a lot of money,
time and effort into their SS-00259 green compliance efforts.

The electronics multi-nationals were highly organized and acutely aware
of RoHS.  They formed a group called the "EHS Hi-Tech coalition" which
still operates to some degree - they now refer to it as "the
coalition".  Yes, that's right: not only were they aware, but many of
them worked together to come up with a consensus plan on how to attack
the problem of RoHS.  When I suggested in a meeting with electronics
industry representatives that the US gov take the issue to the WTO over
the EU's blatant violations of the TBT Agreement, I was told that would
be "a public-relations nightmare".

I, for one, do not wonder why the electronics industry did not fight
RoHS - I know why they didn't.  It isn't speculation.  I could go on
for days and days on the details and massive implications of what they
did, but after four years of fighting their lunacy I'm kind of tired of
it.

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