Assessing the replacement of lead in solders: effects on resource use and human health

Human health and environmental concerns are not usually considered at the same time. Tin-lead solders are still widely used in several countries, including Brazil, by manufacturers of electronic assemblies. One of the options to reduce or eliminate lead from the manufacturing environment is its replacement with lead-free alloys. This paper applies emergy synthesis and the DALY indicator (Disability Adjusted Life Years) to assess the impact of manufacturing soft solder using tin, lead and other metals on the environment and on human health. The results are presented together with the company's financial results and the results calculated from the Brazilian statistical value of life. The calculation of emergy per unit showed that more resources are used to produce one ton of lead-free solders than to produce one ton of tin-lead solders, with and without the use of consumer waste recovered through a reverse logistics system. The assessment of air emissions during solder production shows that the benefits of the lead-free solution are limited to the stages of manufacturing and assembling. The tin-lead solder appears as the best option in terms of resource use efficiency and with respect to emissions into the atmosphere when the mining stage is included. A discussion on the influence of the system's boundaries on the decision-making process for materials substitution is presented.

[1]  Andrea Lazzaretto,et al.  A critical comparison between thermoeconomic and emergy analyses algebra , 2009 .

[2]  J.M. Schoenung,et al.  An integrated impact assessment and weighting methodology: Evaluation of the environmental consequences of lead-free solder alternatives , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment.

[3]  Weidou Ni,et al.  Emergy evaluation of combined heat and power plant eco-industrial park (CHP plant EIP) , 2006 .

[4]  Keith D. Shepherd,et al.  Estimating the environmental costs of soil erosion at multiple scales in Kenya using emergy synthesis , 2006 .

[5]  Patrick Hofstetter,et al.  Selecting Human Health Metrics for Environmental Decision‐Support Tools , 2002, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[6]  T. Suga,et al.  Evaluation of energy consumption of lead-free soldering process , 2003, 2003 EcoDesign 3rd International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing.

[7]  Cecília M.V.B. Almeida,et al.  Emergy assessment of a coffee farm in Brazilian Cerrado considering in a broad form the environmental services, negative externalities and fair price , 2011 .

[8]  Laura J. Turbini,et al.  Processing and material issues related to lead-free soldering , 2006 .

[9]  Julie M Schoenung,et al.  An integrated impact assessment and weighting methodology: evaluation of the environmental consequences of computer display technology substitution. , 2007, Journal of environmental management.

[10]  Cecília M.V.B. Almeida,et al.  Emergy as a tool for Ecodesign: evaluating materials selection for beverage packages in Brazil , 2010 .

[11]  M. Zoli,et al.  The Four-Sector Diagram of Benefits (FSDOB) as a method for evaluating strategic interactions between humans and the environment: The case study of hydrogen fuel cell buses , 2010 .

[12]  Johan Liu,et al.  Nanoparticles of SnAgCu lead-free solder alloy with an equivalent melting temperature of SnPb solder alloy , 2009 .

[13]  Norihiro Itsubo,et al.  Life cycle assessment of Japanese high-temperature conductive adhesives. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[14]  Bin Yang,et al.  Melting and solidification properties of the nanoparticles of Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu lead-free solder alloy , 2010 .

[15]  Simone Georges El Khouri Miraglia,et al.  An Evaluation of Air Pollution Health Impacts and Costs in São Paulo, Brazil , 2005, Environmental management.

[16]  Jue Li,et al.  Evolution of microstructure and failure mechanism of lead-free solder interconnections in power cycling and thermal shock tests , 2007, Microelectron. Reliab..

[17]  Bin Chen,et al.  Sustainability and future alternatives of biogas-linked agrosystem (BLAS) in China: An emergy synthesis , 2012 .

[18]  P. Nilsson.  Environmental Accounting—EMERGY and Environmental Decision Making , 1997 .

[19]  Sergio Ulgiati,et al.  Energy and eMergy evaluation of bioethanol production from wheat in Henan Province, China , 2008 .

[20]  Anna Kua,et al.  Lead-Free Solders : Issues of Toxicity , Availability and Impacts of Extraction , 2004 .

[21]  Cecília M.V.B. Almeida,et al.  Sustainability assessment of a giant bamboo plantation in Brazil: exploring the influence of labour, time and space , 2010 .

[22]  Thomas E. Graedel,et al.  Material substitution: a resource supply perspective , 2002 .

[23]  Sergio Ulgiati,et al.  Quantifying the environmental support for dilution and abatement of process emissions The case of electricity production , 2002 .

[24]  Vorasun Buranakarn,et al.  Emergy indices and ratios for sustainable material cycles and recycle options , 2003 .

[25]  Ken Geiser,et al.  Primary prevention for worker health and safety: cleaner production and toxics use reduction in Massachusetts , 2011 .

[26]  A A Abdel Hameed,et al.  Evaluation of airborne lead in the welding working environment. , 2000, Journal of environmental monitoring : JEM.

[27]  L. J. Turbini,et al.  Examining the environmental impact of lead-free soldering alternatives , 2001 .

[28]  M. T Brown,et al.  Embodied energy analysis and EMERGY analysis: a comparative view , 1996 .

[29]  F. Cherubini,et al.  LCA of magnesium production Technological overview and worldwide estimation of environmental burdens , 2008 .

[30]  Yiider Tseng,et al.  Decreasing biotoxicity of fume particles produced in welding process. , 2011, Journal of hazardous materials.

[31]  Walter Klöpffer.  Global life cycle impact assessments of material shifts. The example of a lead-free electronics industry , 2011 .

[32]  Cecília M.V.B. Almeida,et al.  Emergetic ternary diagrams: five examples for application in environmental accounting for decision-making , 2007 .

[33]  Corrado Giannantoni,et al.  Mathematics for generative processes: Living and non-living systems , 2006 .

[34]  R. Boudreau.  Foreword contributions from the 50th electronic components and technology conference , 2001 .

[35]  M. L. Socolof,et al.  Life-cycle impacts of lead and lead-free solder used in wave soldering of electronics , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, 2005..

[36]  Sergio Ulgiati,et al.  Energy quality, emergy, and transformity: H.T. Odum’s contributions to quantifying and understanding systems , 2004 .

[37]  Enrico Sciubba,et al.  Emergy and exergy analyses: Complementary methods or irreducible ideological options? , 2005 .

[38]  T. Segerberg,et al.  Life cycle assessment of tin-lead solder and silver-epoxy conductive adhesive , 1996, Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment. ISEE-1996.

[39]  Xiaoming Xie,et al.  Reliability of lead-free solder joints with different PCB surface finishes under thermal cycling , 2008 .

[40]  E. Dartey,et al.  Evaluation of airborne lead levels in storage battery workshops and some welding environments in Kumasi metropolis in Ghana , 2010, Environmental monitoring and assessment.

[41]  Anders S. G. Andrae,et al.  Attributional and Consequential Environmental Assessment of the Shift to Lead-Free Solders (10 pp) , 2006 .

[42]  Z. Drozd,et al.  A reliability study of the lead-free solder connections of miniature chip components on hybrid circuits , 2007, Microelectron. Reliab..

[43]  W. Ingwersen,et al.  Emergy as a Life Cycle Impact Assessment Indicator , 2011 .

[44]  Nadia Marchettini,et al.  Emergy Based Analysis of Italian Electricity Production System , 2001 .

[45]  Tim R. McClanahan,et al.  EMergy analysis perspectives of Thailand and Mekong River dam proposals , 1996 .

[46]  Cecília M.V.B. Almeida,et al.  Identifying improvements in water management of bus-washing stations in Brazil , 2010 .

[47]  Torbjörn Rydberg,et al.  Emergy evaluation on the production, processing and export of coffee in Nicaragua , 2006 .