Hi Steve, >The one thing that >concerns me, is that this all started out with the noble purpose of saving the >planet from the toxics of lead, but there are studies, one of them published >in the Expo's proceedings by Edwin B. Smith and L. Kristine Swanger of K*Tec >Electronics, that the alternatives are JUST as toxic as lead to the >environment...not to mention all the technical issues as mentioned in all the >communications in this very thread. I share this concern and would be VERY interested to see this paper (Can someone let me have a copy?). I have so far failed to find any technical evaluation of the environmental pro's and con's of lead free in the literature (any other leads would be most welcome). >So I have to ask myself why? Why are we pushing to change to a process that's >just as toxic, full of technical issues, unproven, and more expensive (at >least in energy usage)? > >If it were any other issue other than lead I would suspect that when faced >with those points most would consider it foolish to pursue such a path. "Lead is a nasty poison so we should stop using it if at all possible." is just as easy to say as "Only using glass bottles once and then sending them for landfill is a waste of energy so we should send all of them back to be re-used." Will the lead free argument prove to be equally true? I think most people, and especially politicians, just don't have the time or skills to dig deep enough or understand the issues fully and unless someone does the studies and shoves the data in front of them they might end up doing more harm than good. This whole thing reminds me of the story about the politition who, on being told the alarming news that the PH of a local watercourse had risen from 6.5 to nearly 7, announced that he would take steps to ensure that the PH was reduced by 50% as soon as possible! >I said it once before and I'll say it again, I feel that somebody stands to >make a lot of money from all of us eliminating our usage of lead, what else >can it be? I would hesitate to suggest anyone in our industry would deliberately influence environmental legislation purely for profit, but I do suspect that some responses to the WEEE proposals have been distorted by the scent of opportunity and the desire not to be branded as environmental villains. David Whalley Senior Lecturer Manufacturing Engineering Department Loughborough University Loughborough Leics LE11 3TU UK Tel. +44(0)1509 222930 Fax. +44(0)1509 267725 [log in to unmask] http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/en/research/mp/david_whalley/index.html ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################