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This of course is rubbish, a fact that a rival supplier soon spotted, running advertisements to the effect of 'Don't worry, it's still available from us' and adding that its use was restricted in certain applications. Which is entirely correct? Although since July of this year solder containing lead cannot be used for manufacturing new consumer products, its use is still permissible for repairing equipment already on the market, for making non-consumer items and for non-commercial (hobby) applications.
False Allegation
The allegation that tin/lead solder will cease to be available is totally false; it will still be made as there will remain many types of product that are not covered by the new rules. Of course, it may not be so easy to find in the shops and Maplin Electronics, probably Britain's biggest hobby electronics supplier, stopped stocking the stuff quite some time ago. The major online suppliers, such as Farnell, RS Components and Rapid Electronics continue to sell it and long may this last.
Whether the change of regulations will lead to prices plummeting or rising is not so certain. Some optimists imagine there will be a glut of the stuff as vendors dump large stocks, although any well-run business will have run down its stocks in advance of the cut-off date. It's more likely that the declining demand will cause prices to rise, although a shortage of the stuff is very unlikely. We shall see.
Battery Ban
Some scare stories are true, however, if the thought of not being able to buy rechargeable NiCad batteries fills you with dread. A pan-European effort to exclude poisonous heavy metals from landfill waste will result in a ban - the use of cadmium and mercury in portable batteries, with only a few exemptions. The applications for which NiCads will still be allowed include emergency lighting, power tools, certified medical equipment and the requirements of national security. A major application that will cease is mobile radios and cordless telephones, in which NiCads have played the mainstay role for many years. These users will have to find compatible new batteries and chargers or else buy new appliances.
Another effect of the legislation is the obligation on suppliers to collect and recycle all batteries, at no cost to the user. There will be tough recycling targets too. Within four years of the directive coming into force, industry will be required to recover 25 per cent by weight of all batteries sold. The EU directive on this subject is expected to be published before the end of this year, with up to two years allowed after that for implementation.
'Worst Law Ever'
If you think these European directives are oppressive, then thank your lucky stars you don't live in Japan, where consumers only just escaped far more draconian legislation. It was in March of this year that the Japanese government did a U-turn and quashed the 'Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Law', which it had already passed in 2001. The legislation aimed to ban the sale of electrical consumer goods manufactured before the year 2001, unless they passed a safety test that would generally cost far more than the item's current value.
The aim of this directive was laudable, to protect users from buying unsafe goods at the same time as revitalising the economy by boosting the sale of new products. However, second-hand dealers were less cheerful; their market was stated to be worth around £500 million, although this was probably a significant underestimate.
What the do-gooders had failed to think through was the effect the legislation would have on the sale of classic hi-fi equipment, early home computers and gaming consoles, also electronic music apparatus and karaoke machines, all of which have passionate adherents in Japan. It also failed to foresee that the effective ban would lead to a flood of this equipment onto the export market at the same time as driving Japan's electronic heritage out of the country where it arguably belonged.
After stringent public criticism the government moved to a compromise position. For six months it would conduct the safety tests at its own expense (well, public expense really) and exempted 'vintage' musical instruments and certain other categories. Finally, the defining date for what was 'old' and therefore had to be tested was moved back from 2001 to 1989, enabling most second-hand products to escape testing. It was a near thing, though, with little wonder that Japanese citizens dubbed it their country's 'worst law ever'.
Grumpy
Who's grumpy? Well, me for a start. People tell me I was already a grumpy old man in my twenties, but at last that experience proves that we British are an adaptable race. We grumble for a while and then adjust to new rules and regulations.
Look at workshop solvents for instance. When I was a kid my father had a tin of petrol in the garage, with an old paintbrush in it for degreasing materials. This was considered unsafe, so we changed over to Carbon Tetrachloride (CTC), also sold in every high street as Thaw pit dry cleaning fluid (remember the wide-rimmed bottle with a cork applicator that took ages to saturate?).
Filthy Phone Calls
While on the subject of cleanliness, I was shocked by another scare story recently, about a new hazard involving mobile phones - nasty bacteria! Under the headline 'Minging Mobiles' a newspaper informed me that keeping handhelds warm and cosy inside pockets makes an ideal breeding ground for nasty bacteria. 'Tens of thousands of microbes live on each square inch of mobile phones and hold more bacteria than a toilet seat,' thundered the article. 'Every time you use your phone to text or put it to your ear, thousands of bacterium [sic] are rubbing off on you to continue breeding', it continued. Really? Surely these bugs are transferred onto the phone from your body, where they evidently do me no harm, so their advice to use anti-bacterial wipes sounds like a cynical excuse to sell more wipes!
Baitron is one-stop sourcing service provider for ICs, connectors, transistors and other electronic components and devices. Baitron offers a highly reliable supply source for hard to find, obsolete and long lead time components, as well as a competitive source of cost saving on current available components.
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