The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive

RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC is a European Directive on the Restriction of use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). It aims to reduce the environmental impact of EEE by restricting the use of certain substances during manufacture.

Products which do not comply cannot be placed on the EU market from 1st July 2006.

The RoHS Directive is complementary to the WEEE Directive (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) which aims to raise awareness of recycling EEE. The RoHS Directive relates to 8 product categories (out of the list of 10 categories which apply to WEEE) and 6 restricted substances (allowed up to Maximum Concentration Values).

Product categories

1. Large household appliances
2. Small household appliances
3. IT and telecommunications equipment
4. Consumer equipment
5. Lighting equipment
6. Electrical and electronic tools (except large-scale stationary industrial tools)
7. Toys, leisure and sports equipment
8. Medical devices - Exempt
9. Monitoring and control instruments - Exempt
10. Automatic dispensers
    

Restricted substances Maximum concentration levels

1. Cadmium (Cd) 0.01%
2. Lead (Pb) 0.1%
3. Mercury (Hg) 0.1%
4. Hexavalent Chromium (CrVI) 0.1%
5. Polybrominated Biphenyl's (PBB's) 0.1%
6. Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE's) 0.1%

RoHS Exemptions

These apply to every homogeneous material (i.e. a material that cannot be mechanically disjointed into different materials)

RoHS does not apply to spare parts for the repair of EEE placed on the market before 1st July 2006. There are also other exemptions which are listed in the Annex to the Directive. http://www.rohs.gov.uk/Docs/links/RoHS%20directive.pdf
The National Weights & Measures Laboratory is the UK's enforcement body http://www.nwml.gov.uk

RoHS useful links

http://www.bis.gov.uk/nmo/enforcement/rohs-home
http://www.conformance.co.uk/adirectives/doku.php?id=rohs
http://www.bsi-global.com/
http://www.rohs-kitemark.com/

How to ensure RoHS Compliance

There is no single standard marking or declaration format for RoHS and manufacturers have adopted a variety of approaches to changing part numbers to indicate components suitable for use in RoHS compliant products. We undertake investigations to check RoHS compliance where we source product for you.

It is our customers' responsibility to inform Euro-Tech of the required RoHS status of their component needs.

At the moment the legislation only applies within the EU but similar environmental legislation is being considered in other countries too. For product built outside the EU for use in the EU customers will need to consider RoHS compliance issues. Where customers specifically do not want RoHS compliant components Euro-Tech will need to be advised accordingly.

Our customers who require RoHS compliance can be confident that the components we supply have been verified as suitable for use. Euro-Tech take all reasonable steps to ensure our customers' RoHS compliance requirements can be met and use reliable, trusted suppliers.

Should the situation arise that we have been given incorrect information by our suppliers, we are committed to informing our customers of the correct RoHS status of components supplied.

We have put in place rigorous RoHS processes and controls which have been integrated with our ISO9001:2000 Quality Management Systems

We adopt a risk-averse approach
We have an audit trail for each product supplied
We conduct risk assessments on our suppliers
We identify and segregate compliant stock through our purchasing and storage systems

Statements of RoHS status

Euro-Tech uses one of the following indicators against each component listed on our quotes, acknowledgements and invoices:

RoHS Yes:

Based on the information provided by suppliers and manufacturers, this component is RoHS Compliant .

RoHS No:

Based on the information provided by suppliers and manufacturers, this component is NOT RoHS Compliant .

RoHS Unconfirmed:

We do not have enough information at this point to confirm the RoHS compliance status of this item.

If buying components from us to build RoHS compliant products or equipment you need to keep our documentation for 4 years.

RoHS Directive 2011/65/EU (RoHS 2) came into effect on the 3rd Jan 2013

The directive now includes all electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) - including previously exempt equipment such as Test & Measurement devices and Medical equipment . Much more specific exemptions still exist however for equipment such as active implantable medical devices / Cadmium in solar panels.

The list of substances and values remains unchanged and any product that met RoHS1 standards also meets RoHS 2 standards.

RoHS is now a CE mark directive and introduces a wide range of obligations on the manufacturer or importer such as compliance testing / documentation control and retention.

Products falling under the directive no longer need to be dependant on electrical current or electromagnetic field but need current or field to perform at least 1 intended function. An example may be an electronic safe would now fall under the directive where as it would not fall under RoHS 1.

Further information on RoHS 2 can found in the linked pdf document here.

Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations.

The WEEE directive was brought into effect in 2007 to ensure that Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment is disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner.

The WEEE Regulations apply to EEE which falls within the 10 product categories and 3 sub-categories listed in the WEEE Directive:-

• Large household appliances
• Small household appliances
• IT & Telecommunications equipment
• Consumer equipment Lighting equipment
• Electrical and electronic tools
• Toys leisure and sports equipment
• Medical devices Monitoring and control instruments
• Automatic dispensers
• Display equipment
• Refrigeration equipment
• Gas discharge lamps

Euro-Tech do not Import / re-brand or manufacturer items in the above list and so are exempt from the WEEE regulations but if you believe that you have purchased an item from Eurotech that falls under these regulations and you wish to dispose of it then please contact us for further guidance.

The UK Environment agency website gives further information.

Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals (REACH).

REACH came into force on 1st June 2007 and replaced a number of European Directives and Regulations with a single system. It aims to provide environmental protection and human protection from the use of chemicals and to allow movement of substances on the EU market.

Euro-Tech are currently exempt from REACH as it applies to substances manufacturers or importers into the EU in quantities of 1 tonne or more per year.

Euro-Tech does not import in such quantities.

More information may be obtained from the Health & Safety area of the UK Government Website.