"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
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"ian field" wrote in message
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"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
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"ian field" wrote in message
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snip


I agree that efforts to control poisons and hormones and all the other
nasty stuff that gets into our lives, are laudable, but it's a matter
of degree. Some pollutants can never be practically removed, nor do
they need to be on dubious eco-grounds. It is a fact of life that we
will always have to endure some, if we want to carry on living the
sorts of consumer-based lives that we do. You can't protect everybody
against everything, and I think that lead in solder ( and CRTs ) is
just one such example where the eco-warriors have gotten their teeth
into something that sounds bad, with apparent tangible negative
effects, and run with it to the point of introducing needless
legislation that costs billions to implement worldwide, has negative
effects on reliability, has already been taken care of with (
acceptable ) recycling legislation, and results in a worldwide
increase in energy budget - with all that's known of the genuine
negative eco effects from that - to implement use of lead-free solder.

If lead in the environment is really still going up, even though it
has now been removed from petrol, the most pressing question should be
" where is it really coming from ? " I'm willing to bet that they
would have a hard time proving it was from either solder or CRTs ...

Arfa


Maybe do a search on lead procurement in general - find out where its
going now, it may be possible to queer the eco-warriors pitch by
extending the campaign to even more ridiculous extremes.

It could be there's some use for lead that the legislators who pass
this crap can't do without!

I've just been having a look to see where it all goes, and the bulk
still seems to be to the auto battery manufacturers. Other major uses
are paint, although now only used for specials such as are used to paint
bridges, lead crystal glass, and roofing materials ( how long I wonder
before lead flashing on roofs gets banned, in favour of some other
useles material that doesn't seal as well, and needs to be replaced
every 5 years ? ). Some of the stuff relating to lead and its poisonous
qualities, makes interesting reading. For instance, it was chosen for
making pipes for carrying water, because of its extreme resistance to
corrosion, by water. For "corrosion", read chemical decomposition and
release into the water ?? I also found statements that once lead had
found its way into the ground, from particulate settlement of leaded
gasoline exhaust fumes etc, it would remain there forever. Hmmm. So how
then, in that case, does it get transformed into any kind of pollutant,
that can get into us, and cause problems. Same goes for lead locked up
in solder, in landfills.

Also, looking at material on the dangers of lead ingestion, it seems to
be a predominantly child based issue, and the word " chronic " seems to
keep cropping up in all of the different articles. In this context, "
chronic " seems to indicate extremely high levels of lead ingestion, and
even then, it says that this only *may* lead to reduced IQ. It also says
that symptoms of lead poisoning are non specific and non unique,
whatever that may mean.

Again, I accept that lead poisoning is very possibly an issue with
certain groups of children, but it surely must be asked where they are
getting these high concentrations of lead in their bloodstreams from ?
I'm sure that it's not from lead in solder, or solder that's found its
way into landfill.

Arfa


RoHS is a complete load of old bull**** and needs to be exposed as
such!!!

Amen to that Ian, but I fear that if the manufacturers haven't managed to
stand up to the powers that be, the chances of us being able to be heard,
are slim to zero ...

Just gotta live with it I fear, and moan and bitch for the fun of it, and
having it make us feel better about it all. I take it you are UK based,
and involved in the trade ??

Arfa


My main line was monitor repair (yes - UK) several things made it
unprofitable - resoldering masses of intermittent solder joints was one of
them, almost every single item had faulty soldering so a blanket resolder
was always required and cost a fortune in solder! Frequently the
intermittent joints caused other damage, some times rendering the equipment
beyond economic repair - so all the fresh solder was wasted!

The intermittent nature of lead free solder seems to have given consumers a
perception that once an item develops any kind of fault, it will go on to
give no end of trouble no matter how competently repaired - so they are far
more likely to just bin it and buy a new one!