RoHS: How big will it be?

RoHS compliance does affect the manufacturing techniques, electronic soldering materials and eventually, electrically conductive materials used. This requirement was initialized by the EEC to reduce, and eventually cease known materials that pollute the environment (some but not all types of materials based on Lead, Mercury, Cobalt and some other exotic harmful elements I have forgotten). All exported products to any EEC will be required to comply with the RoHS edict by 2nd quarter of this year or product will be returned to the country of origin. I doubt this can be policed for a while but do expect that a certification body such as ISO9000 or the like will gradually become the gate keepers in export countries to certify that products are RoHS compliant before shipping to the EEC. I'm an Electrical Engineer and am currently dealing with this issue. Converting to non-PB (Lead) based solder and components has raised our product cost between 3 to 7%. Antimony mixed with another non polluting element yields a slightly higher temperature when soldering through SMD or waveflow for PCBs.

From what I'm reading it looks like the solder problem is pretty nasty. The malleability on the lead free solder causes it to crack rather than deform under stress.
Most countries are exercising the option of allowing non-RoHS equipment for mission critical equipment like medical devices or telecommunications gear.