Last year, the environmental agencies of the three Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, and Finland) conducted a RoHS compliance investigation, testing 24 types of electronic toys. The results showed that the lead content in the solder of three of these toys (one of which was a remote-controlled airplane) exceeded the RoHS directive limits. Surprisingly, these products all came with complete assessment and compliance reports indicating RoHS compliance, leading authorities to suspect that the reports may have been falsified or illegal.
The RoHS Directive, which came into effect on July 1, 2006, stipulates that six hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment sold within the European Union must not exceed prescribed limits. These six restricted substances are lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, and two brominated flame retardants (PBB and PBDE).
Although products that do not comply with the RoHS directive have been removed from the market, environmentalists are concerned that despite manufacturers providing compliance reports, they may not actually meet the requirements of the RoHS directive. There are millions of electronic devices in the EU market, and monitoring and enforcement are a heavy burden for the competent authorities of member states; therefore, it is possible that some counterfeit or non-compliant products may still be circulating in the EU market.
Another investigation by Nordic authorities into 152 electronic products found that 20 of them did not comply with the RoHS directive. The non-compliant products included electric glue guns with excessive lead in their nozzles. A Swedish importer who imported unbranded electric glue guns from China has been punished, and the batch of products has been returned to China due to excessive lead found in the solder and plastic.
The EU government is currently working on revising the RoHS Directive, and regulations are expected to become increasingly stringent. Once adopted by the EU Council of Ministers, the draft RoHS Directive will be formally implemented in member states 18 months after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
– Reference source: Hong Kong Trade Development Council website, 2009-03-10
– Translated by Plastic Industry Technology Development Center
– For reference only, please refer to the original text.
