[morzh]

I agree. Written by a person who sounds like a newspaper rookie girl who got her first assignment and want to impress uneducated reader.

1.Capacitors contained PCB's;

- INDUSTRIAL caps and transformers. As a coolant. Plus added to wire insulation - hence in bound form.
So F..g what! Even if regular caps did contin it, which they did not, did repairing radios involve opening caps? Bad caps are removed and tossed.
Morons.

2. cabinets had asbestos insulation;
- Ron has elaborated on it, but GENERATIONS grew with asbestos around, most of us did. Do we see all of us coughing with asbestosis? No.
Very few radios had asbestos. In fact there was more of it in those dissipative power cords, than in cabinets. Also irons contained it. The repair men were not in the business of demolishing asbestos laiden cabinets

3. the solder contained lead;
- This one takes the cake. Led was banned only about 10 years ago. in Europe. Here it is still not banned, except maybe in CA. We do not eat it, do not inhale it. Leaching to waters from discarded equipment is a fantasy of idiots polititians, most lead in waters is naturally occuing from chelation through minerals.

4. wire insulation was often poor -

- Bold faced lie. Excelent insulation, cloth wraped today most often than not needs no replacement. And rubber, well, if it is nor cracked it is good, and if it is, you see it and repace it. How is this dangerous?

5. - and on top of this, the internal operating voltages often exceeded 350 volts!

True.
And today we have plenty of it in all kinds of equipment. Even in flat displays CCFL inverters poduce high volts. And?

Living is dangerous. Especially if you are an imbecile.