So who do we talk to ?? (or who is being talked to?) Ahne. -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen R. Gregory Sent: Monday, May 03, 1999 8:48 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] "Lead Free", "The Great Gas-Out", and other musings.. In a message dated 5/3/99 5:26:18 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << Hi Steve, I see your still fired up over the lead issue...hehehehe... Dont blame ya. In regards to your to your why question, it is my personnal opinion that some pompous bureaucrat felt they needed to justify their existence somewhere and came up with the idea of "lead free". Who knows, maybe it was even motivated on a personnal level, Perhaps their kid ate the paint on the window seal. In any case, if you look at the list of lead users I suspect were their after us because were least represented and dont have the unified legal front the Automotive industries do. So were easy pickins so to speak. Ed Cosper >> Hey there Ed! Yeah...well, I guess "fired-up" is one way to put it (I did). But mostly, it's righteous indignation over the fact that we're all about to embark on a path that I can't find a good reason for. It's going to be more expensive, maybe not in material costs, but in energy usage because of the higher temperatures that are going to be required, it's going to be more harsh on PCB's and components also because of the higher temperatures, and the jury is still out on the reliability issues. When I get "fired-up" it's when people think we're doing this over the Lead pollution problems, which is a bunch of "hooey". We don't pollute from our responsible use of Lead, plain and simple. Never have. The study that the engineers from K*TEC Electronics have proven that the alternatives are going to be just as harmfull, probably even more so, than Lead to the environment. A perfect example of people changing things for the wrong reasons, and wind-up making things worse is right out here in California. As some of you know, we have to burn this "reformulated" gas out here in California. Part of this "reformulation", is using a chemical called an Oxygenate, which in theory, is supposed to cause the fuel in combustion engines to burn cleaner and reduce air pollution. The Oxygenate that was pushed by the oil companies was Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether, or MTBE. Interestingly enough, MTBE is a byproduct of normal petroleum refining and previously had no use, it was a waste...a very hazardous one at that...a carcinogen. As the song says; "Things that make ya' go hmmmm..." We've been burning this crap for years out here, and they've discovered that we're finding MTBE in our aquifers, our lakes, our wells...all over!! Finally, after years of battle, study after study, Gray Davis (our new governor) has passed legislation to ban the use of MTBE after the year 2002. Thank goodness! I'm not saying the same thing could happen with the Lead alternatives, but there's been at least one study in this early stage that proves any of the current alternatives are just as bad, or worse environmentally. Once the decision is made, it's like pulling teeth to undo that decision. If the decision is made, it should be for good, solid, and technologically sound reasons. Not because of some trumped-up emotional rantings from some bureaucrat. Like I said, my opinion doesn't mean squat, and I'll be struggling right along with the rest of you building my printed circuits with some new fangled material. I just hope we're doing this for the right reasons...for all of our sakes. -Steve Gregory- ################################################################ 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 ################################################################