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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;afantiques, post: 18326, member: 25&quot;]<i>it was the tabs (at the end that &quot;plug in&quot; used to make the electric connection), because the mercury process was a way to create the type of conduction they wanted. I am unsure how much of the mercury was still in the product after it went through the acid baths.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>This sounds like they were using an amalgam gilding process to coat/plate the contacts. All mercury would be driven off in the process but I agree this would not have been good for the local atmosphere if they just vented the fumes. No residual hazard, from the circuit boards, though.</p><p><br /></p><p>Virtually all British homes from the advent of piped water have had lead pipes as standard. It becomes coated with insoluable lead carbonate inside and is harmless. The biggest source of envionmental lead was tetra-ethyl lead in petrol, used for decades but now eliminated in both UK and USA. The biggest health hazard from metallic lead is small, rapidly moving chunks of it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Admittedly, the British Empire also crumbled, but there were more significant causes than lead poisoning.</p><p><br /></p><p>Most people don&#039;t have the time, inclination or often the ability to get a comprehensive understanding of a subject; often the extent of that&nbsp; understanding is &quot;x is bad&quot;. Therefore it is a good marketing ploy to say that your item is &quot;x free&quot;, since it implies the product is &#039;good&#039; by suggesting that it is &#039;not bad&#039; using &#039;not&#039; in a boolean sense there.</p><p><br /></p><p>Popular science is popular because it is easy, it&#039;s easier because a lot gets left out, which is OK&nbsp; as far as it goes but all such information should come with a health warning, &quot;May contain Omissions&quot;.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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