Critical Links
Gary Nevison, director of legislation and environmental affairs at Newark and Farnell, contributes his views on the electronics supply chain and environmental compliance's most critical topics -- ROHS (all variations around the world), REACH, EUP, WEEE directives, and on whatever else comes up in this ever evolving business channel.
RoHS dev kit debate heats up in Europe
The RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive status of development kits and evaluation boards has always been unclear and hotly debated within the electronics industry with no legally binding decisions being made. The German government decided many years ago that printed circuit boards sold separately to users, for example, to increase computer memory or add new functions to PCs would ...... Read More
Comments (7)Understanding the RoHS recast
In the fall of 2010, the European Union agreed to a range of changes to the RoHS directive, known as the “recast”, and these will take effect over the next seven years. The recast will have an open scope with a list of exclusions. The open scope is any electrical and electronic product not captured in categories 1 to 10 unless specifically excluded. The scope is divided into 11 categ ...... Read More
Comments (2)ROHS decision 2010: Dev kits make the cut
The recast of the European Union (EU) ROHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive looks to have brought to an end, and provide clarity on, the hotly debated subject of semiconductor development kits and evaluation boards and their ROHS status. Article 2 (3C) excludes “equipment specifically designed solely for the purposes of research and development only made available on a busine ...... Read More
Comments (0)The China ROHS syndrome: Wait and see
If you thought that progress was slow on the implementation of the so called “China ROHS Catalog” first published in September 2009, but not yet in force, then now there is “China ROHS 2″ to consider. A draft was published in July, and now it is a question of which version of China ROHS will be taken forward and, if so, will the other be rejected (or amended) once and f ...... Read More
Comments (3)Compromise on ROHS recast reached
Compromise was the name of the game at the final trialogue meeting on the proposed ROHS recast.On the “open scope” issue (a product Category 11 would cover all electrical and electronic equipment not captured in Categories 1 to 10 unless specifically excluded) a compromise was reached with all products being covered eight years after entry into force. Some Member States were opposed ...... Read More
Comments (7)Restrictions on halogenated flame retardants
Currently the EU legislation that restricts certain halogenated flame retardants are ROHS and REACH.ROHS currently restricts PBB and PBDE with no exemptions. The proposed recast will not include restrictions on any other halogenated flame retardants, but will introduce a comitology procedure (i.e. carried out by the European Commission) for restricting additional substances, which will include the ...... Read More
Comments (3)The Congo, minerals, and the electronics industry
Something that industry is going to hear more about is the “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,” which was signed into law by President Obama on July 21, 2010. The Act includes a raft of measures arising out of the recent financial crisis and runs to 2,300 pages! Last year there was a bill in the US Senate known as the “Congo Conflict Minerals Act of 200 ...... Read More
Comments (16)ROHS recast could take effect in 2013
Senior officials at the UK Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) have just updated the electronics industry on the current position in regard to the recasts of the ROHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directives. With Belgium now holding the European Union (EU) presidency, there has been an increase in pace, on ROHS in particu ...... Read More
Comments (0)REACH inclusions reaching final stages
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has launched a public consultation on its draft recommendation for eight Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) to be included in the Authorization List (Annex XIV). Substances in Annex XIV will require (costly) authorization to be used after an implementation, or “sunset date”. The use of an SVHC after this date will be illegal, unless the use ha ...... Read More
Comments (0)Vote nears on amended ROHS directive
The European Parliament’s environment committee met in Brussels on June 2 and agreed to put three substances that were facing an immediate ROHS (restriction of hazardous substances) restriction on a list of priority chemicals that will be reviewed later, with a ban still a possibility. Brominated and chlorinated flame retardants and PVC will be looked at later along with arsenic compounds a ...... Read More
Comments (3)To ban or not to ban: The case for and against flame retardants and PVC
The ROHS (restriction of hazardous substances) directive is currently being reviewed with extensive discussions by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. The European Parliament environment committee had proposed that all brominated and chlorinated flame retardants and PVC should be banned by ROHS. However, due to overwhelming opposition, this has been dropped and replaced by a requ ...... Read More
Comments (9)RoHS—the sting in the tail
It is looking likely that RoHS will become a “CE Mark Directive” over the next couple of years. This could have a massive, resource sapping, impact on manufacturers, importers and distributors, regardless of size. While the proposed introduction of new product categories or open scope, further restricted substances and clarity around several definitions will no doubt grab the headlin ...... Read More
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