The Case For Lead

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Background

A massive fraud has been perpetrated upon our civilization by a very few folks, going back some decades to the municipal incinerators used in Europe to incinerate their waste; Americans, having much more land, land-filled theirs. When E-waste began to be incinerated, lead oxide was of course found in the soot. For the Europeans, banning lead was the ill-advised solution.

Driven by ill-informed folks calling themselves "Environmentalists" and a lack of effective push-back by scientists, engineers or any informed legislators, the unreasoning prejudice against lead spread worldwide and in America bypassed any legally required Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The continuing "lead-is-awful" superstition does not give any better foundation for the original unwise decision made by folks who did not want to hear about consequences and had another agenda.

It is time the world woke up to the fact that lead itself in our civilization today is no longer the enemy, but rather that "fear-of-lead" is a tool used by folks who profit from making others afraid of "The Dangerous Environment". There actually ARE such folks. A falsehood repeated enough times gains the apparency of truth; this is a basic propaganda tool, and here we have a classic example.

Is lead a biohazard?

Many studies have shown that it takes unusual circumstances for lead to become a biohazard. The real sources of lead in humans were from leaded gasoline and paint containing lead pigment. Those were eliminated decades ago and the blood levels in humans have continued to decrease since that time as reported by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The actual hazards of lead in today's civilization have been greatly exaggerated to serve the baseless agenda that lead is awful and must be banned.

The consequences of removing lead from electronics

The University of Stuttgart did an overall environmental impact assessment of tin/lead and various commonly used lead-free replacements, evaluating multiple factors on a cradle-to-grave basis. Tin/lead was far and away the best for the environment.

Lead-free tin solders and platings have caused the sudden unintended acceleration incidents that occurred in many popular makes of cars and killed many people; these have been well-publicized but their names won't be mentioned here because they all have lawyers. There are a number of other verified instances where the lead-free material has resulted in widespread electronic failures ranging from heart pacemakers to runaway nuclear reactors to satellites to missile systems.

The legal status of lead-free electronics

The use of lead-free solders and lead-free electronic component finishes in America is illegal and has been since its inception. This is and remains a violation of federal law, specifically www.nepa.gov/.
Download The Law requiring an EIR here.
The fact that this law has been entirely ignored is testimony to the power of the repeated lie.

Conclusion

In a nutshell: The hazards of lead have been greatly overblown; tin/lead is far-and-away the best for the environment; the unnecessary shift to lead-free platings and solders has been demonstrably worse for users of electronics and for the environment.

That is the inconvenient truth.

A detailed presentation of
The Case For Lead
(Tin Whisker Group discussion copy) may be downloaded here:

Download The Case For Lead (Tin Whisker Group discussion copy).pdf



Copyright © 2009-2021 Steve Smith all rights reserved