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Pushback: Where’s the science in RoHS?
Rob Spiegel -- Design News, December 4, 2006
Pushback continues to cry for the elimination of RoHS legislation, saying, show us the science or drop the law. The website, Pushback, launched with the intention of challenging environment laws that aren’t based on hard science.
Pushback continues to cry for the elimination of RoHS legislation, saying, show us the science or drop the law. The website, Pushback, launched with the intention of challenging environment laws that aren’t based on hard science.
The website, Pushback, continues to clamor for the elimination of RoHS legislation. The site says: either show us the science or drop the law. John Burke – who won’t reveal his employer less he get canned for his rants on what he sees as poorly conceived legislation – launched his site last summer with the intention of raising questions about environment laws that don’t have a backbone of hard science. “Engineers who support Pushback want to talk about their concerns regarding RoHS,” notes Burke. “And I personally know engineers who don’t believe they can talk openly about tin whisker concerns without risking their jobs.”
Pushback offers a forum to discuss growing concerns that RoHS laws are appearing across the globe without good science to back up their claims that the lead in electronic components is dangerous to the environment. On the site, Burkes states, “It is widely accepted in the engineering community that the recent ban of lead in solders for use in electronics in Europe is not only erroneous, but will actually lead to a worsening situation on the environment with the replacements being in general use from July ’06 having a greater environmental impact.”
Burke points to the Environmental Protection Agency as his proof. The EPA produced “The EPA Report on Solders in Electronics: A Life-Cycle Assessment” in August 2005. According to Burke, the 472-page document shows that the replacements for leaded solder, generally referred to as SAC alloy, have a higher impact than tin lead solder in a number of areas. “Lead should not have been banned. I did my research. I found the EPA report. Wow. It basically says that silver has ten times the environmental impact,” says Burke. “Someone had to put the flag in the sand because there’s no science in the RoHS law.”
So far, Pushback has succeeded in reaching a good number of people in the electronics industry. “The response has been huge,” says Burke. “The site at one point was getting more than 100,000 hits per month. Now it’s getting 60,000 hits.” He notes that people are visiting the site from more than 50 countries.
As well as providing a site where engineers can discuss their concerns about environmental laws, Burke also wants to provide a challenge to those who write environmental law. “I hope that by raising a flag to annoy the European Union at the commission level, they will do their due diligence before releasing legislation.” Burke is further concerned that one country can pass a law that ripples around the world and changes the behavior of an entire industry. “You have one government that unilaterally produces a directive that has impact on the rest of the world,” says Burke.
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