Lexel, I totally agree that traditional lead solders have some superior properties, and are much easier to work with, for the amateur.
Which is where I started here, encouraging amateur hobbyists to stock up on “the good stuff” whilst you still can, and use it.
Once this is taken seriously, demand for leaded solder will dry up, along with availability. Once the USA jumps on the bandwagon, it will be gone.
The early lead-free materials were dreadful.
However things have changed. Study Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive - Wikipedia and read the last paragraphs, which are cause for optimism.
Nevertheless, the EU bureaucrats, decided to ban it’s use in EEE many years ago, except with specific exemptions. Which are under continuous review, and all expire after 5 years, if not renewed. And new ones are very reluctantly, if ever, granted.
It is the law here, no matter what your personal opinion of it is.
China also has it’s own RoHS regulations.
The concern is nothing to do with poisoning the user, it is what happens when the EEE is disposed of at end of life. Now all WEEE is supposed to be specifically recycled and the materials re-used, but that doesn’t actually happen.
In practice, 70% of the word’s WEEE still ends up in China for processing, and they are fed up with it. Importation of it has been banned for many years, but it is still smuggled in on a massive scale. It is no longer seen as a valuable resource, but as a severe environmental problem. China domestically is also the second largest producer of WEEE, after the USA.
If nothing else, follow this link. A gram here, a gram there, all adds up. Out of sight, out of mind, not my problem, is not an ethical philosophy.
Every UK citizen is estimated to produce 3.3 tonnes of WEEE in a lifetime. All of which has to be disposed of sensibly. Eliminating the lead, and other banned substances, is part of that process.
Just as eliminating it from petrol was. And from paint. That met with great resistance and lobbying from industry at the time, but who would argue for it’s re-introduction today ? (except for vintage car and aeroplane enthusiasts, who can still get Avgas). Likewise installing 3 way catalysts.
And eliminating SO2 from power station exhausts ( remember Waldsterben ? ). Although you are burning the filthiest brown lignite coal now, and even more Russian gas, since Merkel turned off all your clean nuclear stations. Some corruption involved there ? Just a thought, lots of money to be made digging up coal and supplying gas. And “lobbying” works. Nord Stream 2, and Gerhard Schröder’s involvement for example. But I digress.
Currently also seeing the death of Diesel, largely due to blatant lies and cheating by German manufacturers, who have been found out. Don’t be one of those, using leaded solder where it’s not allowed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WEEE_Man,*Eden_Project*~~*geograph.org.uk*~~\_785381.jpg
