Stakeholder Consultation on EU RoHS Exemption Applications Launched

On April 24, 2015, the Öko Institut, consultants to the European Union (EU), announced the launch of an online stakeholder consultation. The stakeholder consultation will run for eight weeks from April 24 to June 19, 2015.  

The consultation covers three requests for renewal of exemptions listed in Annex III of the Directive:

Exemption renewal request 9b: “Lead in bearing shells and bushes for refrigerant-containing compressors, with a stated electrical power input of only 9 kW or lower for the HVACR industry” with requested expiry date three years after the publication of the amended RoHS Annex

Exemption renewal request 13a: “Lead in white glasses used for optical applications”

Exemption renewal request 13b: “Cadmium and Lead in filter glasses and glasses used for reflectance standards”

And three new exemption requests:

Exemption request 2015-1: “Lead in thin film electronic sensor elements such as pyroelectric sensors or piezoelectric sensors”

Exemption request 2015-2: “Lead in high voltage cables and cable assemblies for a rated voltage higher than 250kV DC, containing up to 4% lead by weight” (for industrial monitoring and control instruments, Annex IV)

Exemption request 2015-3: “Lead as activator in the fluorescent powder (1% lead by weight or less) of discharge lamps when used as phototherapy lamps containing phosphors such as BSP (BaSi2O5:Pb) (Annex IV)

IPC, in conjunction with an international industry stakeholder group, applied for more than a dozen exemption extension requests under the EU RoHS Directive. The RoHS2 Directive dictates expiration dates for all exemptions granted and several critical to the electronics manufacturing industry are set to expire in 2016.