The risks ( perceived ) form lead are so high that leaded solder is banned from all electronic equipment...
I think that may be because of the people who assemble the boards using leaded solder all day. It seeps into their hands. Old plumbers had this problem when only lead was used for pipes. Plumbers when older were regarded as barking mad because of lead in their system. Many did not wash their hands after using the lead pipe as they were not aware of the dangers.
Nope - the majority of boards are wave soldered - it goes through a large machine.
The reason lead was banned in the electronics industry was the perceived risk of lead leeching out of apparatus that was condemned to landfill.
The reality is the new lead free rubbish is far less environmentaly friendly to produce, a nightmare to work with in the electronics field, causes premature equipment failure due to incorrect soldering procedure and/or tin whiskers and the whole lead free thing is a load of rubbish in almost all electronic engineers views.
As previously stated, lead free is exempt in critical applications - i.e. medical equipment, military and certain automotive applications. You will also find exemption in minature electronic devices where the terminals are too close to be reliably soldered with lead-free.
Some good reading here :
http://www.edn.com/article/462284-Roll_back_the_lead_free_initiative_12_ROHS_myths.php[/QUOTE]
May well explain the large number of failures in domestic boiler PCBs, which indirectly costs the British Taxpayer a fortune, as we pay for social housing.