Folks,
The EU is currently assessing the effect of WEEE/RoHS on industry. A recent article from EDN discusses this interesting topic. To no one's surprise the "paperwork" aspects of the laws seem to be more work than the technology changes to many, especially because the targets are moving. I for one, however, am still surprised that RoHS never made much of a splash in the major media like the Wall Street Journal.
All in all it appears that the advent of RoHS last July 1 was not the disaster many expected, although it has been suggested that the EU has not publicized non compliance issues so as not to damage any company's reputation. Some countries, most notably the UK, have coached their companies that were not in compliance.....a pleasant surprise indeed.
PC Magazine's April 10, 2007 edition had an article What's Inside Your Laptop. To me it looks like someone ground up a laptop and analyzed it chemically. The article stated that a laptop is about 1% by weight tin-lead solder! Hmmm, bet they analyzed an old laptop. The article discussed "Toxics in Your PC," but I searched in vain for any reference to RoHS.
So unless I am missing something, the biggest disruption in the history of electronics (i.e WEEE/RoHS) was hardly noticed by the mainstream media.
Cheers,
Dr. Ron
Michael:
Because this was missed by the mainstream media computer manufactures received the message that they have to do nothing. The National weights and measures laboratory (NWML) given the honor of testing for RoHS compliances has stated most companies are 99% RoHS compliant but NO companies are 100% compliant. If the EU really wants to keep their environment clean they absolutely need to make an example of one of the major companies. Until then RoHS compliance will get worst since there are no economic pressures to test for and remove RoHS restricted substances. Because of the EU's lack of RoHS enforcement companies that became RoHS compliant lost a competitive edge. The only way for them to recoup losses would be to become lack on environmental issues to stay competitive. The Zero Effect. This is what RoHS has accomplished. This is a bad situation for everyone.