It's strange, AFAIK we had three 'air quality action days' where I live in the last two years, and the EPA wants us to buy reformulated ethanol 'corn gas' and stop using house fireplaces and twocycle gas engines. I live in 'farm central', the middle of nowhere not L.A. or Mexico City. Those of you who live in areas where you don't worry about this yet are lucky, but they too will soon have to.
Anyway, lemme get this straight -
RoHS says we can't send pickups using lead solder to the EU. Fine. I have silver solder too. Now some of you have this WEEE that says that at the end of a product's lifespan, the product must be sent back to the OEM for 'recycling'. Now, since musical instruments have an average life of way over ten years, it is possible that we could try to get an exemption. Fine. I have never known in my life a musician to throw a pickup away anyway, but if I had to deal with the recycling, I can do this.
My question is... let's say that somebody simply throws away a pickup locally wherever he/she is. Under these laws, are we responsible as pickup makers for this? Can we be sued for somebody else's stupidity/laziness? There is real precedent actually... gun makers are being sued to punish them for the actions of criminal people using their own products which they made in a legal manner, and McDonald's fast food restaurants (among others) had lawsuit attempts because some people actually got fat from eating their products. Here in WI, USA the governor tried to sue all paint makers awhile back for damages for making lead house paint, which was once legal but now outlawed. The kicker was, he wanted to sue **EVERY** paint maker, even those companies that weren't even in existence yet when lead was federally outlawed in paints some 30 or more years ago!
What's my point?
No matter how you feel about these social issues, in the end we pickup makers are going to be directly affected by what happens to these other manufacturers. I know that the 'big boys' like McDonalds and Smith & Wesson can afford to defend themselves against these types of legislation, but we simply cannot. How can we protect ourselves? What is legal today may not be twenty years or more in the future.
Ken
Anyway, lemme get this straight -
RoHS says we can't send pickups using lead solder to the EU. Fine. I have silver solder too. Now some of you have this WEEE that says that at the end of a product's lifespan, the product must be sent back to the OEM for 'recycling'. Now, since musical instruments have an average life of way over ten years, it is possible that we could try to get an exemption. Fine. I have never known in my life a musician to throw a pickup away anyway, but if I had to deal with the recycling, I can do this.
My question is... let's say that somebody simply throws away a pickup locally wherever he/she is. Under these laws, are we responsible as pickup makers for this? Can we be sued for somebody else's stupidity/laziness? There is real precedent actually... gun makers are being sued to punish them for the actions of criminal people using their own products which they made in a legal manner, and McDonald's fast food restaurants (among others) had lawsuit attempts because some people actually got fat from eating their products. Here in WI, USA the governor tried to sue all paint makers awhile back for damages for making lead house paint, which was once legal but now outlawed. The kicker was, he wanted to sue **EVERY** paint maker, even those companies that weren't even in existence yet when lead was federally outlawed in paints some 30 or more years ago!
What's my point?
No matter how you feel about these social issues, in the end we pickup makers are going to be directly affected by what happens to these other manufacturers. I know that the 'big boys' like McDonalds and Smith & Wesson can afford to defend themselves against these types of legislation, but we simply cannot. How can we protect ourselves? What is legal today may not be twenty years or more in the future.
Ken
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