RoHS Compliance

The RoHS Directive aims to reduce the use of six hazardous substances in the manufacture of new electrical and electronic equipment.

The RoHS Directive is a Single Market (Article 95) measure aiming to harmonize the laws of the Member States on the restrictions of the use of hazardous substances in the manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment.

The main requirement of the RoHS Directive is that member States must ensure that any new electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market on or after 1 July 2006 does not contain lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), other than in amounts not exceeding maximum concentration values. These values were not specified in the text of the original Directive, but were the subject of a Commission Decision that established them as 0.01% by weight per homogeneous material for cadmium and 0.1% for the other five substances.

Certain applications, (listed in the Annex to the Directive), are exempt. These include lead in the glass of cathode ray tubes and fluorescent tubes, mercury in a range of specified lamps, lead in high melting temperature type solders and cadmium plating.

There is also an exemption for spare parts produced for the repair, re-use and upgrading of equipment that was put on the market before 1 July 2006.

The Directive will primarily affect the manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment, but it will also have an impact upon those who import these goods into the European Union; those who export to other Member States; and those who re-brand other manufacturers' equipment as their own.

The RoHS Directive is complementary to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive and applies to the same wide range of products covered by eight of the ten indicative categories of the WEEE Directive, plus electric light bulbs and household luminaries. The eight categories are large household appliances; small household appliances; IT & telecommunications equipment; consumer equipment; lighting equipment; electrical & electronic tools; toys, leisure & sports equipment; and automatic dispensers. The two categories currently not included are medical devices and monitoring & control instruments.

The text of the RoHS Directive was published in the Official Journal on 13 February 2003, following the conclusion of negotiations in the Environment Council and European Parliament.

Member States had until 13 August 2004 to transpose the Directive into UK legislation.

The substances restriction is effective from 1 July 2006.

The Directive's maximum concentration values (MCVs) were the subject of a Commission Decision, which was only adopted on 18 August 2005 and published in the Official Journal a day later.

For more information on the RoHS Directive, Click Here