On 5/22/2010 3:42 PM Smitty Two spake thus:

In article ,
David Nebenzahl wrote:

On 5/22/2010 12:23 PM spake thus:

On Fri, 21 May 2010 02:20:17 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
wrote:

[...]

Eventually, after a frustrating session of blanket resoldering that
did no good at all, I came to a power resistor standing up off the
board. It was a component that I had previously twisted. This time
I pulled it, and one leg just came right out of the board. The
joint looked perfectly normal - for lead-free that is - but it had
not whetted the resistor leg at all. How the hell could that take
two hours to go bad, not be responsive at all before that time, and
then when it has gone bad, not respond to twisting, but be so tap
sensitive that you could make it come and go with a feather? I HATE
lead-free with a passion.

If it ever finds its way into avionics, be afraid, be VERY afraid
...

There is no doubt lead should not be used where it can wind up being
consumed by humans or animals.. It's use in gasoline, paint, dyes,
ceramic glazes, cast toys, trinkets, etc is indefensible. On the
other hand, banning it's use in ICs, and circuit boards is asinine.

Is it really? Think about it: where does the majority of all that crap
end up?

Hint: it sure as hell ain't in approved, safely managed reclamation or
recycling facilities. You know what I'm talking about. So it's the same
with lead-containing consumer electronics as it is with those other
things you mentioned (well, not the same as gasoline, but everything
else there eventually ends up in landfills, waterways, etc.).

AIUI, 99.9% of the lead in consumer electronics was in CRTs. Isn't there
something like a couple of pounds of the stuff in there? Now that we've
switched to LCDs, that problem has gone away. The amount of lead in a
circuit board is practically negligible.

You could have said the same thing about leaded gasoline way back when.
The amount of lead in a tankful of tetraethyl lead gasoline is
practically negligible. But you know what? it all adds up. That's why it
was banned.


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)