So why does this matter? It makes it harder for kids to learn to solder and make electronic things, further destroying our nation’s ability to actually be a source of innovative ideas going forward! My cousin spent his childhood soldering together electronic kits (final project was a television set) and he grew up to be a very good electrical engineer. Kids today are going to have a harder time doing that.

You can probably tell that I personally dislike lead-free solder. One of my hobbies involves hand-soldering 2mm surface-mount LEDs to silver beads, and it is harder to do at the higher soldering temperatures needed for lead-free solder without overheating the LEDs.

As for reliability of lead-free solder, I understand the jury is still out at NASA and the DoD.

I respectfully disagree about RoHS. It has been quite successful in reducing hazardous substances in electronics on a nearly worldwide basis since 2006.

Today it is difficult to purchase a consumer electronics product that isn’t compliant. Apple, Dell, Sony, Motorola, HP, Cannon, Epson, Sharp and numerous others have been making millions of RoHS products for years now without reliability issues.

Tin whiskers is a well known, researched issue that has largely been mitigated by new solder alloys like tin-silver-copper. To date there are no significant known documented failures of RoHS compliant products.

Here’s a great link:

http://www.ventureoutsource.com/contract-manufacturing/benchmarks-best-practices/rohs-environment/rohs-one-year-later-the-good-news-is-the-bad-news-was-wrong

Luckily CRTs are obsolete with the advent of LCD technology, so I don’t see this as an issue long term.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments, hopefully I can help clear up some common misconceptions.

The resident electrical engineer is out of town and unable to respond but it’s generally accepted that the elimination of lead via RoHS has been an unmitigated disaster resulting in much shorter product life, meaning a lot less value. Here’s an excerpt from here:

Perhaps you’re asking yourself why lead needs to be in anything at all. That was addressed best by Christopher Cleet from the Information Technology Industry Council in the panel discussion (he was a good speaker). He said (paraphrased) “it’s not that we have truck loads of lead and are looking for a place to put it, it’s that it’s needed and useful”. Take your typical TV; that screen glass is full of lead (so don’t let your kids lick it). It has to be, otherwise viewers would be exposed to radiation. Mr. Fashion-Incubator concurs saying lead solder is best. In the EU, they’ve gravitated to tin solder (RoHS). The problem with tin solder is that it’s a friendly and sociable metal and likes to hook up with tin solder nearby forming tin whiskers. This will short out the unit causing failures in everything from pacemakers to video games. He adds that this will happen after your warranty is expired leaving you stuck with a lousy product.

I’m concerned about the burden the CPSIA places on small manufacturers, but I think knowing more about which products are exempt from testing is just as important as pointing out the flaws of the legislation. We need to be careful about how we talk about the CPSIA and not spread unnecessary panic.