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2006-07-03
RoHS needs to be viewed in context
CKS stress RoHS needs to be viewed in context with WEEE, EuP and other environmental initaitives
The RoHS Directive will ban the placing on the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of certain hazardous substances from 1 July 2006. David Sutcliffe of the CKS Group comments, 'The CKS Group welcomes the introduction of the RoHS Directive as an important piece of additional environmental legislation'. 'However, we feel it's important to stress that RoHS needs to be viewed in conjunction with other initiatives such as the WEEE and EuP Directives, in order to appreciate the collective significance'.
The removal of hazardous substances is not a new concept, neither is it a difficult or revolutionary piece of legislation to adopt.
It is simply 'the next logical step' in a continually developing process to eliminate hazards before they get into the supply chain.
In 1949 beryllium was banned in fluorescent light bulbs and of course lead was banned from petrol in 2003.
Many hazardous substances in the supply chain today were used simply because there were no other solutions at the time or it was presumed it was necessary at the original design stage, ironically often used to address specific safety concerns at the time, such as brominated flame retardants.
Once you couple RoHS with the WEEE Directives' objectives of eco-friendly design and other initiatives that will drop into law over the next decade, then it is possible to comprehend how these environmental pieces of legislation fit together.
Industry has the ideal opportunity to step up to the mark and be the leaders in environmental issues without the need to wait for a global consensus.
'In this context, we're keen to ensure that the introduction of the RoHS directive does not take attention away from the introduction of the WEEE directive, and we are looking forward to the UK Government confirming the deadline for this to be transposed.'
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