Thanks for the link David. 
 
This has been covered many time before. It is sensational and it is also  
complex. 
 
Unfortunately, the reporter (like many others before) fails to provide  
sources for the statistics and the methods employed in the study and there is no  
way to understand how the conclusions were made. 
 
Which symptoms of lead poisoning are they seeing? Are they sure it is lead  
related? Are there other potential causes for the symptoms? Why not check blood 
 levels rather than look at symptoms and suppose?
 
Clearly there are people in China and elsewhere making a living  recycling 
electronic products and that is not all bad. What may be bad is simply  the way 
they are going about it. It sounds like the Chinese government does  not want 
to destroy the livelyhood of uncounted numbers of people or they would  simply 
blockade the local port and let them find new work or  starve.  
 
There are places in Russia where the local environment is so toxic  that the 
life expectancy of workers is lower by many years, yet  knowing this people 
continue to come because the wages are much higher  than elsewhere. The same can 
be said for other areas and job elsewhere  in the world. Who gets to make the 
call as to what one chooses to do with their  life and how they make their 
living? 
 
I believe there is a way through this maze and it is through  education. 
There are companies successfully (and profitably, I  assume) recycling electronics 
in the US.  Moreover, there is  money now being set aside with the purchase 
of every new electronic product  to "prepay" for recycling and disposal and the 
provisions of  WEEE mandate recycling. 
 
We are making progress. The glass is half full. 
 
Meanwhile I am still waiting to see definitive studies showing how  lead in 
electronic solders (when properly handled) causes harm to anyone. The  elephant 
is still in the room. 
 
Thanks again, 
Joe    



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------