Deca-BDE ruling (Directive Decoder)

Deca-BDE ruling

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ether (deca-BDE) will be “banned” from electrical and electronic equipment from the end of June.

The European Commission (EC) had originally granted an exemption for deca-BDE from the list of banned substances under the RoHS Directive.

However, in 2006 the European Parliament and Denmark, supported by other EU Member States, took the EC to court as they believed deca-BDE could be replaced with safer alternatives already on the market.

The ECJ has ruled that procedural errors, rather than scientific support or safety data, has led to the annulment of the exemption that was granted in 2005.

It also believes that the EC should propose a new exemption for Deca-BDE which meets the criteria of the RoHS Directive. The court had found that the EC had used an incorrect criterion, an EU risk assessment, as the basis for the exemption.

Directive Decoder

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Posted by Gary on April 2, 2008 4:05 PM | Permalink

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on April 2, 2008 4:05 PM.

The previous post in this blog was The New Batteries Directive.

The next post in this blog is More on deca-BDE.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

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About the author

Gary Nevison is Farnell's spokesperson and customer interface on legislation that affects the electronics industry, such as the RoHS and WEEE Directives. As part of this, Gary has spoken extensively at RoHS seminars throughout Europe, North America and Australia. He has recently turned his attention to the developments, and impact, of China RoHS.
With over 30 years service at Farnell, he has widespread experience in the electronic components industry, Gary is an active figure in the market place, sitting on the AFDEC (Association of Franchised Distributors of Electronic Components) Council and acting as the elected chairperson for its dedicated RoHS development team.
During 2005, Gary was also chairman of the European organisation DMASS (Distributors and Manufacturers Association of Semiconductor Specialists) and today sits on the board of Electronics Yorkshire, helping local businesses.