Amen to that. Some reporters want to sensationalize the small things and ignore the big things. We all have worked with lead for many years and it has been done for decades with no record of illnesses becaues it is done under conditions where lead is wash off our hands after handling and change clothes regularly. If you handle leaded parts and have no way to clean or bathe, of course it will be in your clothes, fingernails and every where else. You would breath it, eat it. Those conditions prevail in poor countries as it was in richer countries years ago. Even now it is not all 100% safe. I would rather work in Hawaii or a place like that where the air is clean and the land is not poluted. We work where the work is at, at good wages. It is a choice. Ramon Hi Denny The number for lead in electronic solder was pegged to be less than 0.5% of all lead used so it won't help that much. I must guess that today the number is somewhere south of 0.5%, maybe 0.3% and shrinking. I keep waiting for the day when some really smart NGO activist finally figures out that the have been barking up the wrong tree and are causing more damage than good. Best, Joe -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Joe Fjelstad Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 12:48 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] NTC An alternate view on lead in solders 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 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------