Directive Decoder

Norway has served notice that it intends to prohibit, with a few exemptions, 18 substances from consumer goods in Norway. Called the Prohibition on Certain Hazardous Substances in Consumer Products this could well be referred to as “PoHS” due to the passing resemblance to RoHS.

The legislation will only apply to Norway but already there appear to be limited choices for companies exporting to Europe. Either develop PoHS as a standard, as RoHS proved that manufacturers do not want to produce unnecessary variants of a product, or simply don’t ship to Norway.

Norway has proposed to restrict 18 substances in anything intended for “consumers” or products that can reasonably be expected to be used by them.

This includes such as clothing, bags, toys etc but does not apply to food products, food packaging, medical equipment, fertilisers, tobacco as well as means of transport and associated products such as tyres.

In May 2007 the Norwegian Control Authority (SFT) opened up to stakeholder consultation a proposal that recommended a ban on 18 hazardous substances in consumer products, the so called PoHS, or Prohibition of Hazardous Substances. They received over a hundred replies both national and international.

Having considered the responses the SFT has adjusted its proposals somewhat. There was a view that they should wait for European Union (EU) regulations on some substances while standing by the proposal for stricter content requirements for ten substances in consumer products.

The ten substances are harmful to both human health and the environment.

They are substances that have low degradability, they bio-accumulate (they accumulate in the food chain) and / or they are toxic. Several are harmful to reproduction.