The RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) Directive (Article 6) requires that the directive is reviewed. The European Commission invited the German based Oko Institute to look at the possibility of adding new restricted substances.
The validity of all the current exemptions is also to be addressed as a separate study that is not part of the RoHS review.
Prior to that ERA Technology, based in
Following these exhaustive reviews, complimented by invited stakeholder consultations, the European Commission was intending to announce its findings in early September. However, this date has slipped, not least because the stakeholder consultation on the final list of potential restricted substances has only recently finished. We are now looking at November or December.
What is likely, but never certain, is that categories 8 and 9 will be included within scope, supported by a raft of exemptions.. Implementation, if approved, is not expected before 2012.
A
list of 46 potential restricted substances has been reduced to 8 plus
organohalogens, and some of these could well be included. These may
include several flame retardants and plasticisers, which are
extensively used in plastics.
Finally, 3 or 4 exemptions could well be removed from the current list of 30 as they are no longer valid or required. These are likely to be very specific ones without widespread impact but several others may be re-worded to make them more application specific.
Directive Decoder
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