Press Release

ENVIRON and COCIR launch new web database for REACH and RoHS compliance

Source: ENVIRON
6/6/2008

6 June 2008 – Manufacturers of electronic equipment are facing a massive increase in the amount of data they need to gather from their suppliers on the substances used in their products. The European Commission is expected to add at least 4 more substances to the RoHS Directive, and Article 33 of REACH Regulation will require all manufacturers to provide customers with information on whether their products contain >0.1% of any ‘substances of very high concern’ on the REACH ‘Candidate List’ of substances. The first Candidate List will contain up to 12 substances and the requirement to disclose information on these substances is likely to start in October 2008.

As the number of substances continues to increase, it will become increasingly difficult for manufacturers to maintain their own independent systems for gathering this data from each of their suppliers. Many suppliers will simply not be able to cope with supplying such massive amounts of new data to each manufacturer on an individual basis. ENVIRON and COCIR believe the most cost-effective and efficient approach is for manufacturers to collaborate on a common process for gathering and sharing data from suppliers.

Earlier this week ENVIRON and COCIR therefore launched the www.BOMcheck.net web database system which will reduce business costs by enabling suppliers to upload their substances declarations to one location for access by all participating manufacturers.

“BOMcheck is the first system that allows electronics producers to reduce the industry burden of ensuring REACH and RoHS compliance by compiling a centralised master database of substance data from suppliers” said Freimut Schröder, of Siemens Healthcare and COCIR Environmental Policy Focus Group chair.

COCIR Secretary General Nicole Denjoy added “This groundbreaking system will reduce costs for our members and other industries as instead of each supplier having to deal individually with each manufacturer, it will provide one central location where the supplier can share its data with multiple manufacturers.”

The European Commission, Orgalime, European Lamp Companies Federation and Agoria were among the delegates at the launch on 4 June in Brussels. The European Commission congratulated COCIR for leading this initiative.

Media Contacts:
Aidan Turnbull Nicole Denjoy Kathryn Sheridan
ENVIRON COCIR COCIR
Head of EcoDesign Secretary General Communications Advisor
Tel: +44 (0)1225 748420 Tel: +32 (0)2 706 8961 Tel: +32 (0)496 116198
aturnbull@uk.environcorp.com denjoy@cocir.org press@cocir.org