Hi, As many of you will know the Oko institute (the RoHS technical consultants for the EU) refused to even consider my recent exemptions requests, even though they were backed up by a plethora of scientific data including the EPA report on lead in solders lifecycle. They would consider none of this since, as they put it: "the review of basic assumptions behind the ban of lead in the RoHS Directive would be an evaluation of the RoHS Directive and the political decision behind it, which is beyond the consultants tasks and possibilities within this consultation process. The consultants therefore refrained from commenting on these studies and findings and did not take into account this stakeholder document during the evaluation of the respective exemption requests" I am glad that THEY used the word assumptions.....I felt duty bound to comment on this direction, here is the link to the press article in PCB 007 entitled "The EU RoHS Consultants - Who ARE these Guys?": http://tinyurl.com/fp3gc Kind regards, John Burke For the record the full Oko Institut report can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/pdf/rohs_report.pdf --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e 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 -----------------------------------------------------