Progress in the Revision of EU RoHS 2.0
Since 2008, the EU RoHS Directive, which has had a profound impact on global electronic and electrical product enterprises, has officially begun its revision work, and related discussions have been ongoing.
On December 3, 2008, the European Commission published draft COM (2008) 809/4 of the RoHS Revised Directive on its official website.
On September 3, 2009, the European Union released the second draft of the RoHS revised directive, COM (2008) 809final.
On October 22, 2009, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety of the European Union issued revised opinions on COM (2008) 809.
The RoHS revision directive, also known as RoHS 2.0, involves many aspects in its revision. However, its basic goals and mechanisms have not changed, and the ultimate goal is still to reduce specific harmful substances in electronic and electrical products. Currently, the main revisions involved in the second draft of the RoHS revised directive are as follows:
1. Product Scope
Clarified the scope of instruction control and related definitions, expanding the scope of controlled products to all electronic and electrical equipment except for special exemptions:
- including Class 8 medical equipment and Class 9 product monitoring equipment exempted from 2002/95/EC;
- Class 11 products: All other electronic and electrical equipment, including cables and other components, not covered by Class 1-10 products.
2. Restricted substances
Although no new restricted substances have been added, four toxic and harmful substances (HBCDD, DEHP, DBP, and BBP) have been selected as candidates for restricted substances.
HBCDD hexabromocyclododecane
DEHP phthalate (2-ethylhexyl) ester
DBP Dibutyl Phthalate
BBP butyl benzyl phthalate
3. CE marking requirements
Incorporate ROHS compliance of electronic and electrical equipment into CE marking requirements. Producers should ensure that their products comply with ROHS and prepare corresponding declarations and technical documents when posting CE markings.
4. Transitional period regulations
In order to provide sufficient time for manufacturers newly included in ROHS 2.0 controlled products to comply with the requirements of the directive, ROHS 2.0 has set a control transition period for the relevant products.
- Medical equipment and monitoring equipment and their components shall comply with ROHS2.0 from July 22, 2014;
- In vitro diagnostic medical equipment and its components shall comply with ROHS2.0 from July 22, 2016;
- Industrial monitoring equipment and its components shall comply with ROHS2.0 from July 22, 2017;
- Other products newly included in ROHS2.0 control should comply with ROHS2.0 from July 22, 2019;
5. Exemption mechanism
Adopting existing exemption clauses and proposing 20 new exemptions for medical and monitoring equipment, while specifying different maximum validity periods for product categories:
The exemption period for the 8 categories of products and the 11th category of products originally controlled by 2002/95/EC is up to 5 years;
The maximum exemption period for products in categories 8 and 9 is 7 years.
6. Add market supervision clauses
Introduce unified product conformity assessment requirements and market supervision mechanisms. Reduce the number of non compliant products in the market through strict and unified market regulation, thereby effectively achieving directive objectives.
Relevant manufacturers should deeply understand the requirements of the instructions and take timely response measures to ensure that their products comply with the new requirements proposed by ROHS2.0.