"Adrian Tuddenham" wrote in message
valid.invalid...
Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
"Arfa Daily" wrote:
Remember also, that most of us outside of the USA are in a slightly
different position from you folks in that we must not, officially under
threat of law, do anything to compromise the RoHS certification of a
product. That includes using non RoHS compliant replacement parts, and
solder to fix them in with ...
I'm just curious, how would this "threat of law" scenario play out?
Assume some authority finds out that you've got a roll of 63/37 stashed
under the floorboards, (or a bin of old leaded components) and you pull
it out on occasion for an illegal repair. Would the cops come? Throw you
in the slammer? Would you be facing jail time, a fine, revocation of
your business license?
The usual procedure with laws like this is to find one small operator
who has made a mistake and smash him to pieces with the maximum of
publicity. It is supposed to frighten the others and is a lot cheaper
than chasing them as individuals.
It would have been a lot better if the manufacturers in other countries
had got together and told the EU that they were going to continue to use
lead in their solder. If Europe didn't like it, they could do without
the products. (Did I hear somewhere that this was exactly what the Swiss
watchmaking industry did - or did I imagine it?)
--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
Yes, Smitty. Adrian's analysis is about the measure of the situation. There
is nothing illegal about owning leaded solder, and stocking non RoHS
compliant parts. There is nothing illegal about using them to repair
equipment which is either pre-compliance vintage, or exempt from the
regulations. Much equipment that I repair in fact falls into those
categories. There is also no requirement for anything that is built not to
be intentionally for sale to the general public, to be RoHS compliant.
I am reminded of a famous case here in the last few years. The EU mandated
that food items offered for sale loose, must be sold in kilos only. A small
greengrocer somewhere up north, continued to price and sell his produce in
pounds and
ounces, as he said that many of his older customers simply did not
understand the new-fangled metric measurements, and still preferred to
understand the price of a pound of tomatoes, rather than trying to work out
the half-kilo price from the whole kilo. As far as I recall, he was also
displaying the prices in kilos, but as a secondary figure rather than the
primary one. He was descended on by the local weights and measures
department, along with the police, and was arrested for his crime. He was
subjected to a full blown 'show' trial and was actually ultimately jailed
for his
efforts because he rejected the findings of the court, and refused to pay
the fine.
He fought the courts through the appeal process for some time afterwards,
but the stress of it all brought on a massive heart attack, and he died aged
just 39 ...
He had huge, and I mean huge, support from the public for making his stand,
but it
made not a jot of difference. The authorities obviously decided right from
the start that they were going to go after this guy, and prosecute him to
the full extent of the ridiculous law forced on us unconstitutionally, by
the EU.
See
http://www.metricmartyrs.co.uk/Home/...4/Default.aspx
picked at random from many hundreds of web entries.
So, Smitty, that's what's meant theoretically - and sometimes in reality -
by "under threat of law", and I sure as hell am not going to put myself in
the EU firing line by anything that I do professionally. I have no desire to
become the first 'Solder Martyr' ... :-|
Arfa