ROHS exemptions announced by EC--What goes, what stays, what’s new

The European Commission has recently made public a report on the review of 29 current ROHS exemptions. The report was carried out by its contracted technical consultants Oko Institute and Fraunhofer IZM, who made recommendations on the exemptions. The recommendations will be voted on by the Technical Adaptation Committee (TAC) and be adopted by the Commission before becoming effective.

Many thousands of products rely on an exemption and, as part of the review, the consultants were tasked with providing clearer and unambiguous wording on existing exemptions. Of the 29 exemptions, 21 will continue, in many cases, with amended wording and proposed expiration dates between 2010 and 2014.

Five exemptions will be eliminated with a proposed transition period until mid 2011, and one exemption will be withdrawn with no transition period. These are 16 (lead in linear incandescent lamps with silicate coated tubes), 18 (lead as activator in the fluorescent powder), 19 (lead with PbBiSn-Hg and PbInSn-Hg in specific compositions as main amalgam and with PbSn-Hg as auxiliary amalgam in very compact energy saving lamps), 20 (lead oxide in glass used for bonding front and rear substrates of flat fluorescent lamps used for LCDs), 26 (lead oxide in the glass envelope of black light blue lamps), and 27 (lead alloys as solder for transducers used in high-powered loudspeakers).

The decaBDE (9a) and hexavalent chromium (28) exemptions were already obsolete.

The report also considered five new exemption requests around either lead in solders or the use of cadmium. “Cadmium for use in solid-state illumination and display systems” was proposed, but one other was rejected, and no recommendation was made on the other three.

The ROHS directive permits exemptions for materials used in applications where there is currently no technical alternative. Under the proposals for the revised scope of the ROHS directive, the so called ROHS 2, exemptions will be valid for four years. However, they may be renewed and the manufacturer would need to re-apply for exemptions that are still required, at least 18 months before they expire.

As long as the application is made 18 months before expiration, the European Commission “shall decide in due time on the application for renewal.”

The EC will adopt new rules for exemption applications that will include the need to provide information on the analysis of alternatives and substitution plans if alternatives are available.

About the author
As director of legislation and environmental affairs, Gary Nevison is Newark’s and Farnell’s spokesperson and customer interface on legislation that affects the electronics industry, such as the ROHS (all variations around the world), REACH, EuP, and WEEE directives. For more on Gary, click here.