actually not really true for electronics. The WEEE and RoHS directive of EU have had a great impact, China has their own policy in this area now.
from a numbers perspective when a supplier starts making components that are RoHS compliant, it is economically less viable for them to run separate batches ..one that meets RoHs and one that does not. The economies of scale are killed doing that.
There are some good policies in US including california’s prop 65, but more is definitely needed.
The issue is that EU is more proactive, if something is suspected of causing harm, they will stop it until its proven that its not, US on the other hand is completely opposite, thus our issues with lead, formaldehyde and asbestos…
but with teh global supply chan of electronics, we are inadvertantly benefitting from the proactive stance of the EU