Dear all - I work in the electronics industry and we are having to
remove cadmium and various other fairly nasty materials from our
products. Which I guess is fair enough. But we're also removing lead
from tin-lead solder. The reason that has been given for this is to
prevent environmental damage when the product is eventually disposed
of.

The thing I don't understand is - and I've been on training for this
subject and no-one has been able to answer the question - is why
doesn't it affect building materials?

I reckon my house has at least 2 square meters of lead on the roof.
(It's a complex design) Rainwater runs off this all the time and then
seeps into the ground and into lakes and rivers.

I still have a quantity of lead water pipes in my house (as do many,
many people).

So is there really any good reason for removing lead from electronic
components and PCBs when there's all this lead being sued in the
building industry? Or is it just another piece of do-gooder
thumb-twidling buraucratic EU nonsense? (With big fines)

Interested if anyone knows the answer...

There are also concerns over "tin whiskers" due to lead not being used
in tin plating - there was a story on slashdot a year or so ago.

More info he http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/background/index.htm