Starting in Europe, RoHS-like regulations are now being developed worldwide. The scope, the listed hazardous substances, and their applicable exemptions differ from one market to another.
Enviropass is here to assist you with your RoHS testing towards product environmental compliance worldwide
European Union – China – The United Arab Emirates UAE – The Eurasian Economic Union EAEU (Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan) – The UK – Saudi Arabia – India – Turkey – South Korea – California – Singapore – Taiwan – Ukraine – Oman – Japan – Vietnam – Switzerland – Thailand – Indonesia – Bangladesh – New Jersey – Jordan – Argentina – Brazil – Nigeria – and other countries
RoHS is an acronym that stands for Restriction of Hazardous Substances. The long version of RoHS is the Restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances.
Every RoHS regulation aims at restricting the use of hazardous substances contained in electrical and electronic equipment, to better protect the environment and human health. As a result, the waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) becomes easier to recycle and less harmful.
RoHS regulations target Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE). Depending on the countries, the covered product categories differ. Europe RoHS probably has the broadest scope, covering most household, professional, medical devices, tools, monitoring instruments, and even industrial products.
Generally speaking, aerospace, military, and automotive products are out-of-scope. Batteries obligations and packages requirements are also excluded. However, specific regulations apply to automotive equipment (ELV), batteries, and packaging environmental compliance.
RoHS regulations mirror Europe RoHS all over the world. This is the case of the Eurasian Economic Union (Russia RoHS), the United Arab Emirates (UAE RoHS), Turkey RoHS, California RoHS, and other states and countries. Unlike Europe RoHS, some countries like the United Arab Emirates RoHS request external audits.
Significant national deviations apply to other RoHS regulations, like China RoHS and Taiwan RoHS, with different sets of labels and declarations.
Countries and states like Australia, Canada, Japan, or the USA (other than RoHS in California and New Jersey) don’t have RoHS laws as such, or regulations specifically dedicated to substances restrictions in electrical and electronic equipment.
However, this doesn’t mean that no applicable regulations apply at all. Legal obligations on hazardous substances are usually implemented, restricting mercury, lead, cadmium, and others. The objective is to reduce their use and the risk of exposure when importing, producing, or placing on the market mixtures, products, and devices.
Obligations to declare such substances to national agencies, and to obtain certificates of authorization are usually mandatory above certain thresholds.
Typically, they are heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium hexavalent) and, depending on the RoHS regulations, some additives in plastics, like PBBs, PBDEs, and phthalates (BBP, DBP, DEHP, and DIBP).
In essence, you will have to confirm that none of the targeted hazardous substances exceed their threshold of 0.1% (or 0.01% for cadmium) at the homogeneous material level of every component and material in your product. Two approaches are available:
The latter is highly recommended for complex products. When conducted, it should meet the IEC 63000 standard, as requested per Europe RoHS.
Do you need a RoHS certificate of compliance for your new products?
Any other questions on RoHS? Please contact Enviropass. You can also follow the Enviropass LinkedIn page to keep abreast of the latest news on RoHS and other product environmental requirements.
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New Jersey also has a RoHS regulation, known as the “Electronic Waste Recycling Act” (Senate Bill 2144), chapter 347…
Brazil has drafted a RoHS regulation too. Brazil RoHS details have been by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment…
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