Further Restrictions on Hazardous Chemicals

Yes, watch out for the deadly monochloride of Sodium, made of two deadly parts...and by the way, pellets of this expire in 2 years on a pharmacy shelf.

'Crats gone mad

Does this have anything to do with Strategic Arms Limitation Talks???

Hi Moose, maybe someone should mention to Guido Sacconi that if we don't use the chemicals here in Europe, China will.

You make a good point, PlbMak. Still, I like RoHS. I'm not an expert on the subject, but it's my understanding that this EU Directive requires all manufacturers of electronic and electrical equipment sold in Europe to demonstrate that their products contain only minimal levels of hazardous substances. If this is indeed how RoHS works, then it serves to "regulate" non-EU states who are not bound by the same environmental regulations. In other words, the Chinese can use whatever hazardous chemicals they like, but the EU won't permit the sale of products that contain them. This would, I think, enable European companies to remain competitive - at least in the EU states.

I like RoHS as well. the problem we are having is that it's become a purchasing issue, not an engineering issue. (not my problem, I,m mechanically based, not electricarylylyly...ly)

Do NOT forget that RoHS is much more than electronics !

It also covers a great deal of elastomers - plastics - coatings - finishes and the like, which enter in the mechanical field as well.

What are some of the issues that you've faced with RoHS, PlbMak? Does Purchasing have a difficult time locating substitute supplies that you need? Do you have to "justify" purchases of difficult-to-acquire items? I've not had direct experience with RoHS, so I'm curious about what the landscape is like.

Ok, here goes…….I'm not directly involved with RoHS either, being more directly linked with production, but my understanding is that for your product to comply, you ensure that every component you use is approved. So far so good. The problems start when the paradigm at head office (I work for a household name PLC) is that your class of product will be exempt from the Regs. The situation at present – Purchasing trying to by in components that comply but being hammered to keep costs down, R & D not redesigning for compliant parts, electrical engineering ordering compliant parts and not allowed to fit them, as not approved by R & D. and head office saying 'that's OK, your products don't come under the Regs.

We think they DO come under the Regs, and furthermore, the enforcement authority is not talking about fines, they will ban product from sale!

Needless to say, all in my dept. have 'e' mailed everybody upstairs, just to cover our assess!

PS, We have lumped WEEE into the mix as well.

I hope this helps.

It does help. Thanks for sharing that information. One of the things I like about CR4 is that engineers can access "the story behind the news". A lot of media reports about regulations such as RoHS and WEEE reduce matters to high-level absolutes, e.g. "It's good for the environment" or "It's bad for business". Reporters focus on speeches by elected officials, comments by business leaders, and industry costs. The information that you've shared is the first I've read about RoHS from an engineer's perspective. I'm glad that CR4 could provide a venue for this.

Hello again….I've just reread my post and I thought I'd just reiterate – the enforcing body have decided that a fine is not enough to discourage a company from non compliance – I would probably agree to that – so the best thing to do would remove products from the market. This is quite a scary! I can't remember hearing of that happening before.

Is there anybody out there who has?

I have read that mainland China is coming up with their own version of RoHS which is even more stringent than the European Union. A good source of information in this arena is "Green Supply Line" which is a weekly web news letter on the subject. Sorry but I don't have their web site immediately at hand.

Bill

That's interesting, we have a subsidiary manufacturing plant in china, and I wasn't aware of that.

I'm gonna check it out and get back to you.

Its not a question of substances being safe. We already know whether a substance that we use is safe or not and what precauations we need to take to make them safe for usage.

The problem is in identifying whether or not they can have an impact upon the environment when used or disposed of.

Then there's the business of implementing programmes to mitigate the impact upon the environment by either usage or disposal. The precauations/solutions can be expensive and time consuming and as they say time's money.

Whether we like it or not it has to be done.

The way we are going there wont be any clean air to breath, water to drink or food to eat and so the work environment will dissapear along with all of the rich kids who are making a fortune from producing and illegalley disposing of dangerous/hazardous waste streams.

Get with the programme and lets clean up our act.

Jim Sullivan

England