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May 1999

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From:
Ahne Oosterhof <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Mon, 3 May 1999 09:44:20 -0700
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So who do we talk to ?? (or who is being talked to?)

Ahne.
-----Original Message-----
From:   TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen R. Gregory
Sent:   Monday, May 03, 1999 8:48 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: [TN] "Lead Free", "The Great Gas-Out", and other musings..

In a message dated 5/3/99 5:26:18 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Hi Steve,

 I see your still fired up over the lead issue...hehehehe... Dont blame ya.
 In regards to your to your why question, it is my personnal opinion that
 some pompous bureaucrat felt they needed to justify their existence
 somewhere and came up with the idea of "lead free". Who knows, maybe it was
 even motivated on a personnal level, Perhaps their kid ate the paint on the
 window seal. In any case, if you look at the list of lead users I suspect
 were their after us because were least represented and dont have the
unified
 legal front the Automotive industries do. So were easy pickins so to speak.

 Ed Cosper >>

Hey there Ed!

Yeah...well, I guess "fired-up" is one way to put it (I did). But mostly,
it's righteous indignation over the fact that we're all about to embark on a
path that I can't find a good reason for. It's going to be more expensive,
maybe not in material costs, but in energy usage because of the higher
temperatures that are going to be required, it's going to be more harsh on
PCB's and components also because of the higher temperatures, and the jury
is
still out on the reliability issues.

When I get "fired-up" it's when people think we're doing this over the Lead
pollution problems, which is a bunch of "hooey". We don't pollute from our
responsible use of Lead, plain and simple. Never have. The study that the
engineers from K*TEC Electronics have proven that the alternatives are going
to be just as harmfull, probably even more so, than Lead to the environment.

A perfect example of people changing things for the wrong reasons, and
wind-up making things worse is right out here in California. As some of you
know, we have to burn this "reformulated" gas out here in California. Part
of
this "reformulation", is using a chemical called an Oxygenate, which in
theory, is supposed to cause the fuel in combustion engines to burn cleaner
and reduce air pollution. The Oxygenate that was pushed by the oil companies
was Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether, or MTBE. Interestingly enough, MTBE is a
byproduct of normal petroleum refining and previously had no use, it was a
waste...a very hazardous one at that...a carcinogen. As the song says;
"Things that make ya' go hmmmm..."

We've been burning this crap for years out here, and they've discovered that
we're finding MTBE in our aquifers, our lakes, our wells...all over!!
Finally, after years of battle, study after study, Gray Davis (our new
governor) has passed legislation to ban the use of MTBE after the year 2002.
Thank goodness!

I'm not saying the same thing could happen with the Lead alternatives, but
there's been at least one study in this early stage that proves any of the
current alternatives are just as bad, or worse environmentally. Once the
decision is made, it's like pulling teeth to undo that decision. If the
decision is made, it should be for good, solid, and technologically sound
reasons. Not because of some trumped-up emotional rantings from some
bureaucrat.

Like I said, my opinion doesn't mean squat, and I'll be struggling right
along with the rest of you building my printed circuits with some new
fangled
material. I just hope we're doing this for the right reasons...for all of
our
sakes.

-Steve Gregory-

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