76 The PCB Magazine • March 2016
tion of Chemicals (REACH),establishing a Eu-
ropean Chemicals Agency, amending Directive
1999/45/EC and repealing Council Regulation
(EEC) No 793/93 and Commission Regulation
(EC) No 1488/94 as well as Council Directive
76/769/EEC and Commission Directives 91/
155/EEC, 93/67/EEC, 93/105/EC and 2000/21/
EC.
REACH is administered out of Helsinki, Fin-
land. The regulation encourages the sharing of
data between applicants for the registration of
the same substance to minimize cost and ani-
mal studies. Studies are assigned a monetary
value that is used in computing the compensa-
tion owed to the owner of the data by other ap-
plicants who want to use such data in their ap-
plication. The distinction between "chemical"
and "article of commerce" in REACH may differ
from OSHA regulations, and thus may require
the registration of chemicals that compose
an "article." REACH adopted the convention
that polymeric substances are not registered as
such, but that the monomers from which the
polymer is derived need to be registered. This
can lead to confusion as toxicity data of mono-
mers may be associated with the properties of
the polymer.
China RoHS and China WEEE
China RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous
Substances), officially known as Administrative
Measure on the Control of Pollution Caused by
Electronic Information Products is a Chinese
government regulation to control certain mate-
rials, including lead.
All items shipped to China now have to be
marked as to whether the items contained in
the box are compliant or non-compliant. The
Electronic Information Products (EIP) logo or
other label is used to mark parts and assemblies
that do not contain unacceptable amounts of
substances identified by the regulations, and
that are environmentally safe. Units that do
contain hazardous substances are marked with
the EIP logo including an Environment Friend-
ly Use Period (EFUP) value in years.
There are currently six substances consid-
ered environmentally hazardous by the China
RoHS directive.
• Lead
• Mercury
• Cadmium
• Hexavalent Chromium
• Polybrominated Biphenyls
• Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers
China RoHS does not allow any technology
exemptions unlike the EU RoHS 2 Directive.
China RoHS includes the following elements:
• Prevention of pollution by eliminating
pollutants and requiring recycling
• Cradle-to-grave scope
• Packaging must be non-toxic, biodegrad-
able and recyclable
• Packaging must be marked with material
content
• The RoHS 6 (Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, PBB, PBDE)
are banned from use
• Products must be labeled with:
– Names, content levels, and recyclability
of harmful materials
– Recyclability
– Product safety periods (date range
product is safe to use)
– Extraordinary exception permits
labeling in product manuals or on
packaging
• Producers must provide indices of product
safety periods for publication
• Producers must contract with local recy-
clers to recover products after safety pe-
riod
• Producers must finance recycling
green legislation and the impaCt on eleCtroniC materials and proCesses
"
the regulation encourages
the sharing of data between
applicants for the registration of
the same substance to minimize
cost and animal studies.
"
