U.S. Manufacturers Must Comply With EU's RoHS Rules In July

May 26, 2006
European Union (EU) regulations designed to facilitate trade and promote competition within the 35-nation bloc are about to restrict what U.S. makers of electrical and electronic equipment can include in their products. Beginning July 1, the EU's ...

European Union (EU) regulations designed to facilitate trade and promote competition within the 35-nation bloc are about to restrict what U.S. makers of electrical and electronic equipment can include in their products.

Beginning July 1, the EU's directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances (RoHS) will affect manufacturers of refrigerators, hair dryers, toasters and electric knives, laptop computers, lighting equipment and toys, among others, says Sharyl Reisman, a New York-based partner in the product liability and tort litigation practice of Jones Day, a global law firm. The restricted substances are mercury, cadmium, lead, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl esthers.

"Anybody who is selling products-importing, exporting [and] distributing in EU states-needs to be aware of these regulations," she stresses.

Actually, more than awareness will be required. Manufacturers need to identify the hazardous substances in their products, try to find suitable alternatives, and if alternatives are not available, check for exemptions for exemptions from the rules and possibly apply for exemptions, she states. What's more, electrical and electronic goods manufacturers need to "push back" on suppliers and insist they certify the components that they're providing comply with ROHS, emphasizes Reisman.

About the Author

John McClenahen | Former Senior Editor, IndustryWeek

 John S. McClenahen, is an occasional essayist on the Web site of IndustryWeek, the executive management publication from which he retired in 2006. He began his journalism career as a broadcast journalist at Westinghouse Broadcasting’s KYW in Cleveland, Ohio. In May 1967, he joined Penton Media Inc. in Cleveland and in September 1967 was transferred to Washington, DC, the base from which for nearly 40 years he wrote primarily about national and international economics and politics, and corporate social responsibility.
      
      McClenahen, a native of Ohio now residing in Maryland, is an award-winning writer and photographer. He is the author of three books of poetry, most recently An Unexpected Poet (2013), and several books of photographs, including Black, White, and Shades of Grey (2014). He also is the author of a children’s book, Henry at His Beach (2014).
      
      His photograph “Provincetown: Fog Rising 2004” was selected for the Smithsonian Institution’s 2011 juried exhibition Artists at Work and displayed in the S. Dillon Ripley Center at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., from June until October 2011. Five of his photographs are in the collection of St. Lawrence University and displayed on campus in Canton, New York.
      
      John McClenahen’s essay “Incorporating America: Whitman in Context” was designated one of the five best works published in The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies during the twelve-year editorship of R. Barry Leavis of Rollins College. John McClenahen’s several journalism prizes include the coveted Jesse H. Neal Award. He also is the author of the commemorative poem “Upon 50 Years,” celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Wolfson College Cambridge, and appearing in “The Wolfson Review.”
      
      John McClenahen received a B.A. (English with a minor in government) from St. Lawrence University, an M.A., (English) from Western Reserve University, and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University, where he also pursued doctoral studies. At St. Lawrence University, he was elected to academic honor societies in English and government and to Omicron Delta Kappa, the University’s highest undergraduate honor. John McClenahen was a participant in the 32nd Annual Wharton Seminars for Journalists at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During the Easter Term of the 1986 academic year, John McClenahen was the first American to hold a prestigious Press Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.
      
      John McClenahen has served on the Editorial Board of Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies and was co-founder and first editor of Liberal Studies at Georgetown. He has been a volunteer researcher on the William Steinway Diary Project at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and has been an assistant professorial lecturer at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
      

 

Sponsored Recommendations

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of IndustryWeek, create an account today!