Bev:

I did not mean to get you worked up when I compared this "Lead Free"
situation to the ban of cleaning solvents (CFC's) and the depletion of the
ozone layer.

I thank you for the stratospheric chemistry lesson.

The whole point of bringing up the ozone layer in the first place is simply
recalling the period of time leading up to the stoppage of production of
CFC's by the end of 1995. If my recollection serves me right, Jim Brinton
was writing a column for Circuits Assembly magazine called "Environmental
Watch" or "CFC Watch". In this column, it seemed like every month there was
a new culprit to ozone depletion. One month CFC's, the next month
Mt.Pinatubo, then back to CFC's, then the burning of the rain forest, then
there was some new phenomenon previously unknown from the upper reaches of
the stratosphere etc. etc. At the time there was no clear cut consensus on
the issue. But we banned it anyway. It didn't matter.

Having accepted this fact, I can't speak for everyone, but the banning of
CFC's led to some really huge process changes. New fluxes, new cleaners,
aqueous, semi-aqueous,  etc etc etc. Not to mention new procedures,
equipment, work instruction changes, all kinds of documentation. All of this
happened without anyone, to my knowledge, taking a look to see how CFC's
were being used in my application.

You mentioned in your response that I did a good job in controlling the use
of CFC's but, it wasn't good enough. Could I have done even a better job of
controlling CFC's ? I don't know, I probably could have, but we did not get
an opportunity to try.  All CFC's were banned.

So as far as the "Lead Free" drive, it simply won't matter. Steve G. writes
that lead as used for soldering electronics is a hardly a major contributor
to "the problem". All I'm saying is that even if we can prove that we can
control our industry to some zero level, it simply won't be good enough. We
won't be asked to justify our use of lead and how it might be better
controlled. The ban is coming, it doesn't matter what you think or do.

That is what irritates the (fill in the blank) out of me.

Regards,

Bill Kasprzak
Moog Inc.
(The opinions expressed here are my own.)

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