Quote Originally Posted by Valencian Kilted
We can blame Russia, China or USA for being massive contaminators, but to do so, we must be the first at the time of taking action to change things at home, and things are not being done properly also here at all. We all must do the same effort to compulse our neighbours, politicians, etc,... to change of attitude, and this means we must be the first in changing our attitude,...
I agree with you that if Europe is going to try to get everyone else to change then they should first correct their own behavior. It's one thing that frustrates me about my own country. We are more than happy to chastise other countries for their behavior but we do nothing about our own. It's highly hypocritical but is seems to be the US calling card these days (i.e. on torture, spying, holding prisoners without hearings or rights, etc.)

All I was meaning was that decisions in the US when made by the government are rarely done for good sound economic reasons, but instead can usually be traced to either a give-away of public resources to private campaign contributors or to simple laziness.

I didn't mean to criticize the EU decision, just to point out that things here in the US are not as rational as many expect.

Also, as for stained glass, the EU decision has led to the creation of many new products that would never have come to pass (such as lead-free channel/came, lead-free solder, lead-free flux, bendable zinc came, etc). When the laws against lead were first created here in the US there were no such products and the decision to exempt stained glass was made because without the exemption stained glass would cease to exist. Now that such products are available, I see no reason to not adopt them. The more we use them the less expensive they will become. In my own studio I frequently use lead free solder and always use lead-free flux.