EU lead-free directive

[Luhan Monat]

Pooh Bear wrote:

It's stupid legislation that will merely increase the price of goods to no
real beneficial effect and possibly put a number od small firms out of
business. Funny ( ha ha - not ) since one of the leading ( lol )
principles was that it should have *no* effect on cost.

That's Brussels for you. Getting kind of sick of the Commission telling us
what we can and can't do. They aren't elected either.

We used to be governed by Brittan. You know what our solution was!

 

[Joerg]

Hello Luhan,

Threads have a way of wandering around, from my recent experience here.

Look on the bright side: At least it hasn't degenerated into a political
shoot-out. Even though the recent voting results on the EU constitution,
.... uhm, let's not go there...

Regards, Joerg

 

[Joerg]

Hello Graham,

No-one's going to be checking anyway !

Except when a competitor is desperately looking for a chance to blow
your company out of the water.

Regards, Joerg

 

[Joerg]

Hello Luhan,

We used to be governed by Brittan. You know what our solution was!

But it did cause a spike in the price of tea for a while because the
whole shipment floated around in the Boston waters.

Regards, Joerg

 

[Luhan Monat]

Hello Luhan,



It's here:

http://www.ieee.org/portal/site/mai...th=about/whatis&file=code.xml&xsl=generic.xsl




ROFL!

Regards, Joerg

Thanks, I have never seen that. Looks like how I work anyway. Except
the 'bribery' part. We needed the use of a TV studio once, but the
engineer didn't work weekends. So we scheduled 4 hours studio time on
Saturday, paid for the studio time, and slipped 2 nice crisp $100 bills
to the engineer. He says 'any time guys'.

Sometimes the wheels of capitalism work better with a bit of lubrication.

 

[Jim Granville]

Hi,

This comes in mid-2006 and AIUI requires that lead content is below
0.1%.

Surely, one could achieve this by making the overall product heavier?

Or does it work on a per-circuit-board basis? In that case, the lead
in standard solder will probably weigh more than 0.1% of the weight of
the populated PCB....

This could be a serious problem for any company that is slowly running
down a stock of old chips. These won't be lead-free, and neither will
be any chips purchased from the many used chip vendors who pass on
surplus stock. I expect a lot of their business will dry up since many
companies are requiring *zero* lead content on *all* components.

Any views?

http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_037/l_03720030213en00190023.pdf

|3. This Directive does not apply to spare parts for the repair,
|or to the reuse, of electrical and electronic equipment put on
|the market before 1 July 2006.

So that would seem to cover stocks of old chips. IC manufacturers
are going to need to be lead-free after July 2006, for Euro sales, but
'put on the market' would seem to cover anything made/invoiced
prior to that ?


and there are more exemptions here :

|(11) Exemptions from the substitution requirement should be
|permitted if substitution is not possible from the scientific
|and technical point of view or if the negative environmental
|or health impacts caused by substitution are
|likely to outweigh the human and environmental benefits
|of the substitution. Substitution of the hazardous
|substances in electrical and electronic equipment should
|also be carried out in a way so as to be compatible with
|the health and safety of users of electrical and electronic
|equipment (EEE).

|7. — Lead in high melting temperature type solders (i.e. tin-lead
|solder alloys containing more than 85 % lead),
|— lead in solders for servers, storage and storage array systems
|(exemption granted until 2010),
|— lead in solders for network infrastructure equipment for switching,
|signalling, transmission as well as network
|management for telecommunication,
|— lead in electronic ceramic parts (e.g. piezoelectronic devices).

The target is mainly the high volume/short life/disposable consumer
products, (rightly so).
It seems other large industry groups have lobbied for exemptions...

-jg

 

[keith]

IEEE code of ethics? I'll just have to look that one up. Basically, if
a client wanted a 'marital aid' with 'midi in', I would just quote
them the cost to make a 'working prototype'.

Of course, as part of the fee, you'd demonstrate the 'instrument'?

 

[keith]

Hello Luhan,


Look on the bright side: At least it hasn't degenerated into a political
shoot-out. Even though the recent voting results on the EU constitution,
... uhm, let's not go there...

Ok, it fair to shoot your mouth off at left-pondia's politics, but not the
other way? Gotcha. <though there is really nothing to say - frogs and
all>

 

[Joerg]

Hello Keith,

Ok, it fair to shoot your mouth off at left-pondia's politics, but not the
other way? Gotcha. <though there is really nothing to say - frogs and
all>

Well, I try to stay out of political dicussions on Usenet. At the local
pub that's a different matter (but I'll listen to the other side).

Regards, Joerg

 

[Rich The Newsgroup Wacko]

Hello Keith,


Well, I try to stay out of political dicussions on Usenet. At the local
pub that's a different matter (but I'll listen to the other side).

Well, I think we all pretty much know the drill - "They" are ignorant
dupes, and "We" are the custodians of Truth. ;-P
--
Cheers!
Rich
------
"Hickory Dickory Dock,
Three mice ran up a clock!
The clock struck one,
Right in the balls!

There was an old woman,
Who lived in a shoe,
Who had so many children,
Her uterus fell right out."

 

[keith]

Hello Keith,


Well, I try to stay out of political dicussions on Usenet. At the local
pub that's a different matter (but I'll listen to the other side).

You brought the issue up. I, for one, was willing to leave it lie.

 

[keith]

Well, I think we all pretty much know the drill - "They" are ignorant
dupes, and "We" are the custodians of Truth. ;-P

That's why you kill-file anyone who disagrees with you, while polluting
this group with hundreds (google counts 8780 with author= rich*) you don't
have to see your silly face in a mirror. What a frrappin' maroon!

 

[Bryan Hackney]

Hello Bryan,



Car batteries yes. Mostly. But what about those things with sealed lead
acid batteries in them?

Regards, Joerg

So your point is:

a) Lead batteries should be highly regulated

b) Since lead batteries are the worst lead offenders by an order of magnitude,
all other lead regulation is pointless

c) Something else


Note, I'm not supporting or denigrating any point.

 

[Bryan Hackney]

[...]

Only if you are an officer of the company and are a "PE" or similar
with sign-off responsibility.

In the US maybe, but this thread is about the EU (or so it says)

tim

Or if you want to sell into (what was to have been) the EU, maybe this
is topical.

 

[Rob Turk]

What do you make of:

"Applications of lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, which are
exempted from the requirements of Article 4(1)...
7. — Lead in high melting temperature type solders (i.e. tin-lead solder
alloys containing more than 85 % lead)"

Well, I make that one more reason to vote "NO" on the European constitution
today...
Thanks for pointing that out.

Rob

 

[Tilmann Reh]

"Applications of lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, which
are exempted from the requirements of Article 4(1)...
7. — Lead in high melting temperature type solders (i.e. tin-lead
solder alloys containing more than 85 % lead)"

Why would they make an exception for solder that has over double the
lead of that most commonly used for electronics? Does this mean that
if producers of electronics can find a way to use 85% lead solder,
they are exempt?

All exceptions are potentially limited in time. They are for products or
materials for which /currently/ no realistic substitutes are available. Another
example: Cadmium in NiCd cells of electric hand tools. As soon as
technologically possible, these exceptions will probably be dropped from the list.

 

[David Brown]

John Popelish schrieb:




All exceptions are potentially limited in time. They are for products or
materials for which /currently/ no realistic substitutes are available. Another
example: Cadmium in NiCd cells of electric hand tools. As soon as
technologically possible, these exceptions will probably be dropped from the list.

That certainly seems to apply to the more inexplicable exceptions (lead
is allowed in servers, storage devices, and network infrastructure devices).

It also seems, as far as I can see, that exceptions are granted where
there is scientific or technical reasons not to use the substitute, or
where the substitute is more harmful to the environment and/or people.

There is also a mention of spare parts and repairs - does this mean
suppliers can continue to produce and supply lead-containing electronics
as spare parts?

 

[Paul Burke]

AFAIUI, automotive lead-acid batteries are 96%+ domestically recycled
here (under stringent environmental controls).

Let's see, say a battery weighs 10kg, that 4% not recycled is 400g.
Assume 10 million are dumped each year in Europe. That's 4000000 tonnes
of dumped lead per annum.

I reckon the solder in a typical PCB is about 5g max. So my annual use
of lead is about 5kg max. There's room for 800 million small businesses
like mine before we equal the car battery. That should solve Europe's
unemployment problem!

Paul Burke

 

[Paul Burke]

a) Lead batteries should be highly regulated

Yes, a deposit on them, say $400. You pay it once, and redeem it by
handing in the old battery. Like we used to do with bottles in the 60s.

b) Since lead batteries are the worst lead offenders by an order of
magnitude,
all other lead regulation is pointless

Not pointless, just less cost effective, and as people keep pointing
out, damaging to an already fragile industry.

c) Something else

Shouldn't be too difficult to extract the lead from PCBs, if the
political will is there (roast them at 300 degrees in a centrifuge?) We
need to encourage recovery and re-use over dumping anyway.

Paul Burke

 

[Jim Granville]

David Brown wrote:

There is also a mention of spare parts and repairs - does this mean
suppliers can continue to produce and supply lead-containing electronics
as spare parts?

The alternative would be the very counterproductive/ludicrous:

"Oh, we have to dump that product now; Can't repair it as we cannot get
parts anymore. Send it to the land-fill!"

...and a heap of lead that would not have otherwise been in the
land-fill, gets there much earlier, because of the lead-free directive....

-jg