What
is RoHS?
The RoHS Directive stands for "the restriction of the
use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment".
This Directive will ban beginning 1 July 2006, the placing on the EU market of
new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of:
lead,
cadmium,
mercury,
hexavalent chromium,
polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and
polybrominated
diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants .
Manufacturers will need
to understand the requirements of the RoHS Directive to ensure that their
products, and their components, comply.
Enforcing
RoHS
The National Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML) has been
awarded the contract to set up the UK’s national RoHS enforcement body. We will
be delivering RoHS enforcement when the regulations are fully
implemented.
We have developed this website to provide you with
information and help associated with RoHS compliance and enforcement. This
includes a web version of the decision tree we intend to use, an FAQ section
which we are continually updating as your enquiries come to us, and a list of
other useful resources that are available to you in our links section.
If
you are hosting events relating to RoHS enforcement and would like input from
us, please contact us to discuss. Leading up to 1 July 2006 and further into the
future, we would like to support as many targeted events in the EEE sector as we
can.
DIRECTIVE 2002/95/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
Polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) are manufactured chemicals. They are added to the plastics used to make products like computer monitors, televisions, textiles, plastic foams, etc. to make them difficult to burn. PBBs can leave these plastics and find their way into the environment.
PBBs are usually colorless to off-white solids. PBBs are mixtures of brominated biphenyl compounds known as congeners.
In 1973 several thousand pounds of PBB were accidentally mixed with livestock feed that was later distributed to farms in W central Michigan. Some 1.5 million chickens, 30,000 cattle, 5,900 swine, and 1,470 sheep that became contaminated with PBB before the mistake was discovered had to be destroyed.
Later studies indicated that PBB had spread through the food chain; in one test of a sample of Michigan's residents, 97% of those tested had traces of PBB in fat tissue. Affected cattle suffered loss of appetite and weight loss (often leading to death), decreased milk production, and increased miscarriages.
Laboratory studies have linked PBB with liver cancer in rats and with low birth weight, liver damage, and weakened resistance to disease in human beings.
In the United States, manufacturing of PBBs was stopped in 1976.
PBBs are still around in the environment because they do not degrade easily or quickly.
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are added to materials to decrease the likelihood and intensity of fire in a wide variety of products, including vehicles, furniture, textiles, carpets, building materials, electronic circuit boards and cases... just about anywhere that plastics are used.
Some of the most common plastics to which PBDEs are added are high-impact polystyrene, polyurethane foam, wire and cable insulation, and electrical and electronic connectors. PBDEs can constitute quite a large percentage of the final product... up to 30%.
PBDEs work because they decompose at high temperature and liberate bromine atoms, which are effective at slowing and stopping the basic chemical reactions that drive oxygen-dependent fires.
PBDEs are mixed with polymers as plastics are being made. Because they do not bind chemically with the plastic, they leach continuously out of the final product. Thus given the ubiquity of plastic in the modern world, it is not surprising that PBDEs are being found in the environment.
PBDEs now contaminate human milk. Swedish research reveals that contamination levels in breast milk have increased more than 50-fold over the period 1972 to 1997 (Meironyté et al. 1998). PBDEs are also found in human fatty tissue and in human blood serum.
Roughly 50,000 metric tons of PBDEs are produced annually world-wide, with 40% of their use in North America.
Because PBDEs are both lipophilic (they concentrate in lipids, or fats) and extremely resistent to physical, chemical or biological degradation, they are highly persistent and bioaccumulative... classic POPs although not yet included in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
PBDEs are chemical similarity to dioxins and PCBs, although far less studied from a toxicological perspective. What is clear is that they are potent thyroid disruptors, 7 times more powerful than human thyroxine at binding with human transthyretin.
Bibliography:
Agency for toxic substances and disease registry
Region 1, 1 Congress Street
Suite 1100 (HBT)
Boston, MA 02114-2023
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts68.html
Aotco Metal Finishing Company
11 Suburban Park Drive
Billerica, MA 01821
http://www.aotco.com
Environmental Science & Technology
American Chemical Society
1155 16th St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2001/dec/science/kb_pbde.html
ESPI
1050 Benson Way
Ashland, Oregon 97520
http://www.espimetals.com/technicaldata.htm
Metallurgical Consultants
931 N. State Road 434, Suite 1201 - #189
Altamonte Springs, FL 32714
http://www.materialsengineer.com/E-Alloying-Steels.htm
Precision Steel Warehouse, Inc.
3500 North Wolf Road | Franklin Park, IL 60131
North Carolina
2027 Gateway Blvd. | Charlotte, NC 28208-2741
http://www.precisionsteel.com/tech_data/chemical.asp?n_cat_id=1
Washington State Department of Health
101 Israel Road SE
Tumwater, WA 98501
Mail: PO BOX 47890
Olympia, Washington 98504-7890