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In April, at least 52 people died and more than 160 others were injured after a fire broke out at a trade show for makers of household and consumer electronics in Meerut, India, some 50 miles north of New Delhi. A leading factor for the carnage, according to several reports, was the lack of required safety measures. As a result, the blaze quickly became an inferno.

I didn't bring this up last year but after I read that story I cannot in good conscience let it slide any longer: The tragedy should serve as a wake-up call to those who attend - and organize - Nepcon China.

The Nepcon trade show takes place each April at the Everbright Convention Center, in the Xujiahu area of Shanghai. And the hall is a disaster waiting to happen.

The facilities are far too old and overburdened for a show of Nepcon's size and demands. In the event of a fire or other need to evacuate quickly, the premises don't lack for exits, but there is this one little problem: Almost all the doors are chained and locked. After walking the first floor specifically looking for available exits, I found only three sets of doors that were open. Stairways from the higher floors are narrow and few.

Power is at a premium: The generator is too small and underpowered to provide the air and electricity needed to run all the machines. Exhibitors trying to give product demos were frequent victims of intermittent losses of power.

Simply walking the floor is a potential landmine. You have to keep your head up to avoid walking into the throngs of visitors, but doing so means taking your eyes off the foot-high "snakes" of cable that run indiscriminately right through the booths and aisles the length of the hall.

So why not switch venues? The issues are the familiar ones of space and access.

According to producers Reed Exhibitions, Nepcon China is a 13,000 net sq. meter show. That translates to about 140,000 sq. ft., or about 13% smaller than the IPC Apex show, which is a reported 160,000 sq. ft. Obviously, it requires a large hall.

Nothing will change in the next year, show producers say. Josephine Lee of Reed Exhibitions in Shanghai told me that the show is booked in the Everbright in 2007. City-wide, all the halls are sold out for the next two years, she said.

That said, the show producers are considering Suzhou, Lee said. Located about two hours from Shanghai, Suzhou is home to a number of large industrial parks and most major foreign OEMs have plants there.

There's also a cavernous and up-to-date facility in Pudong, across the river from Shanghai. That hall, the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, is about 2.7 million sq. ft. - plenty roomy to hold Nepcon. The catch is, it's co-owned by Messe Munchen, the company that puts on Productronica. Messe has discussed a China version of Productronica, which makes it a clear competitor to Reed's Nepcon brand. According to Lee, Reed is excluded from leasing that site during the first six months of the year.

Exhibitors prefer the current timing of the Shanghai show, which coincides with SemiCon China in late March and runs off-season to Productronica, perhaps the only electronics manufacturing event outside of Japan that draws more attendees.

All of this undermines what would otherwise be one of the most productive trade shows our industry has (for the full recap of this year's event, see page XX). More than 16,000 people attended this year's show, up 8.6% from last year, Reed says. Moreover, this isn't the Reed that drew the ire of exhibitors at the former Nepcon China. Exhibitors at Nepcon China almost unanimously agree that the Asian shows are well run and the event planners are open to the concerns of their customers.

What am I going to do? For starters, I'm sounding the alarm. I'm pulling our exhibit from the show next year. I will attend, but warily. And I would strongly suggest that the exhibitors exert their full pressure on Reed to move sites, if for nothing else than to ensure the safety of their customers.

Pb-Day. We are one month away from the deadline for compliance to the European RoHS Directive. Debate over whether the directive is worth the trouble has raged for years. At long last, one engineer is taking matters into his own hands.

Last month John Burke, senior manager of operations at Optichron, a Silicon Valley IC company, launched a Website (rohsusa.com) to record "the truth of the environmental impact of this legislation." Burke says he's one of many engineers "who cannot understand why the European Parliament has seen fit to effectively ban lead in electronic solders, forcing the industry to use a much less environmentally friendly alternative." We salute his efforts.

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