Hi IPC-LF Listservers, and Paul, Paul did a great job in quoting the Directives, Thanks to Paul. Here are my thoughts to your questions. <Just two questions: < <Do I understand that medical, industrial control, and defense <products are exempted from EU lead free directives because there <may be some question about lead free solder reliability and about <the reliability of components and systems subjected to lead free <solder reflow temperature stresses? < WernerE can correct me, yet YES it is commonly known that LF or LeadFree will have reduced Reliability due to a number of reasons. A metallurgical growth problem called Tin Whiskers is one of the concerns for Long (greater than 8 or 10 years) life products. A web site and forum exists to discuss this issue. <If so, does this imply that reliability in other electronic <equipment does not matter, or matter as much as removing this <grave threat to life-- lead in solder? Most consumers (except me, and die heart conservationists) wouldn't be caught keeping a consumer product for 5 years so it becomes a question of consumer average or statistical life time. I would guess that some Reliability folks have a term for this like "Usable Reliability or Functional Reliability or ???" I don't remember the term.. So for them (the EU Engineering Advisors) to make a distinction for certain product or equipment categories isn't far out of line (at least according to my analysis) YiEngr, MA/NY DDave -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Leadfee Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Leadfree To temporarily stop delivery of Leadree for vacation breaks send: SET Leadfree NOMAIL Search previous postings 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 847-509-9700 ext.5315 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------