Yes, I know how to google and use wikipedia. The Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive is fairly self-explanatory.
But I don't see why lead in things like resistors is such a hazard - at least, it shouldn't be, provided the rest of the system is functioning. Lead doesn't become airborne like asbestos (at least, I think it doesn't), and I don't know when the last time was that a little kid cracked open some electronics and started munching on resistors. Simply handling things like a PCB should not impart lead to a person. Possibly there are places where they are just grinding up old electronics into powder, there are really poor regulations so people start breathing in that powder and get poisoned? This is just an imagined example, but why not attack the lack of regulation - isn't that the real problem?
Wikipedia mentions that things are 'coming full circle' - we ship our old electronics to China for recycling, and then the heavy metals like lead and cadmium end up contaminating Chinese consumer products that reach our shores. Isn't that more a case of China or other countries not having their act together? I don't intend to attack China, I have nothing against them as a country or culture, but they have massively increased their industrialization in the last few decades, too quickly, and things like safety and QC have suffered...whether it's lead in children's toys, or their oil tankers spilling left and right (most recently in the Great Barrier Reef). It doesn't seem a forgone conclusion to me that lead in a discarded PCB should end up contaminating a children's toy. It seems like a major effort toward reorganization and regulation, and as a safeguard better quality control, would be a better idea than trying to eliminate lead from EVERYthing EVER.
But I don't see why lead in things like resistors is such a hazard - at least, it shouldn't be, provided the rest of the system is functioning. Lead doesn't become airborne like asbestos (at least, I think it doesn't), and I don't know when the last time was that a little kid cracked open some electronics and started munching on resistors. Simply handling things like a PCB should not impart lead to a person. Possibly there are places where they are just grinding up old electronics into powder, there are really poor regulations so people start breathing in that powder and get poisoned? This is just an imagined example, but why not attack the lack of regulation - isn't that the real problem?
Wikipedia mentions that things are 'coming full circle' - we ship our old electronics to China for recycling, and then the heavy metals like lead and cadmium end up contaminating Chinese consumer products that reach our shores. Isn't that more a case of China or other countries not having their act together? I don't intend to attack China, I have nothing against them as a country or culture, but they have massively increased their industrialization in the last few decades, too quickly, and things like safety and QC have suffered...whether it's lead in children's toys, or their oil tankers spilling left and right (most recently in the Great Barrier Reef). It doesn't seem a forgone conclusion to me that lead in a discarded PCB should end up contaminating a children's toy. It seems like a major effort toward reorganization and regulation, and as a safeguard better quality control, would be a better idea than trying to eliminate lead from EVERYthing EVER.
