Everytime there’s a major health issue or anything extremely anti consumer it’s because of a loophole in the formulation of a US law.
Are US lawmakers that bad? Or is it judges who interpret laws literally instead of using the intent?
If you try to solve 100% of the problem you have the bad stuff on the market for another 10 years while the details are sorted out.
Or you just ignore the details and ram through the bill, and find out about a lot of unintended consequences and have a mess.
Ideally, politicians would pass the bill with loopholes first, and then follow up and try to close them to finish solving the problem. But that's one of those things like refactoring and code cleanup that you always mean to do and never get around to.
Everywhere there are large governments, there is huge corruption that is literally killing people so that others may be enriched without working as much.
Big business interests affecting policy for the point of profit is a universal issue though.
You'd have a lot fewer corrupt officials though.
What I mean is that you only see what survives. The thousands of products which used to have lead which don't anymore are gone, out of sight out of mind. The ones which someone forgot, or someone bribed a politician to preserve, or even ones which were created specifically afterwards and which the law had no way to even know about, to ban, are what you see.
Dynamic systems have this property, and it's hard to get permanent dominance since both sides keep adjusting.
I went most of my life ignorant of all of this. But banning stuff outright seems like it would be counterproductive to either industry (banning soldering would be disruptive) or public image ("Liberals declare war on Christmas!").
(Tangential mention of McDonald's, whose warnings highlighted the acrylamide released in the potato-frying process.)
The only problem I've ever had with it is (1) that it turns out Bunnings in Australia sells utterly atrocious flux (the good stuff is also non-toxic, potable compatible and made in USA - and it works perfectly) and (2) that people aren't aware enough of the problem (i.e. my parents house has lead solder all through the plumbing where my father didn't know there was a difference and extended it).
EDIT: For any Australians out there - this one - https://www.totaltools.com.au/154135-la-co-56g-soldering-flu... - buy this one. This is the one which works.
It's hard to interpret intent in a way that is consistent and fair. A ruling that does not go by what is written down is open to be criticized, while a ruling that adheres to the letter is almost never overturned.
Bribery of politicians
I don't have a vested interest in the lead industry, but it's pretty clearly not simple maleficence.
People don't normally drink hot water
People drink hot water all the time not to mention cooking, tea, instant coffee and more.
legionnaires
That's from water being stagnant for long periods of time.
lead helps make metals and solders more resilient to high temperatures
Not only is this not true, but water is never going to go above boiling. Propane torches (used for soldering pipes) burns at 1,980C
Banning lead from the hot side could therefore decrease reliability
This is ridiculous. Soldered pipes have been in use for over 70 years. Where are getting this idea?
I always use cold water and then boil it in a kettle. Even in Europe with our copper pipes the heat will dissolve more crap apparently. It's always advised to do this.
> That's from water being stagnant for long periods of time.
Yeah stagnant under optimal bacterial growth temperatures like 30C. And it enters the body through the lungs, from vapors in the shower. Not drinking it doesn't prevent legionnaire disease.
In fact what does prevent it is heating the water significantly, like around 60C. And chlorinating. It's also why the water here in Spain it's almost undrinkable from all the chlorine here in summer. They just have to put that much in it to prevent outdoor pipes growing bacteria. Yet in summer the water is still hot and brown when I open the tap after it's been outside in the pipe all day. I drink a lot of bottled water, lol.
> Not only is this not true, but water is never going to go above boiling. Propane torches (used for soldering pipes) burns at 1,980C
Yeah lead solder actually melts at a much lower temperature. I still use it for that reason because lead free is a bitch to work with. I only solder micro electronics though.
That's great for you. This has nothing to do with how absurd the idea of using lead in 'hot pipes' would be.
Not drinking it doesn't prevent legionnaire disease.
I didn't say anything about drinking, I just said it comes from stagnant water.
I still use it for that reason because lead free is a bitch to work with. I only solder micro electronics though.
Lead free solder is very easy to work with when putting copper pipes together. The torch puts out a lot of heat and you don't have to worry about destroying anything near it (except for wood behind it). I can't imagine all the twisted logic it would take for someone to think using leaded solder in pipes is a good idea.
Actually, this is famously caused by having water that’s not hot enough. It became a problem in some countries when they advised lowering boiler temps to save energy.