We all love our mobile phones, tablets, and TVs, but it’s important to check these products for high levels of hazardous chemicals that can harm your health and our environment. The European Union has enacted strict regulations, and compliance is important for your business. 

Under the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) rules, a company may not place any item on the EU market that exceeds thresholds set for various chemicals. These include lead, mercury, and a group of phthalates. These chemicals have been classified to be harmful for the environment, human health, or both.

Any company importing goods that contain electrical components into the EU must comply. Nations outside the EU have adopted their own versions of this legislation. Companies who produce electronics typically hire a testing company like QIMA to make sure their electronics comply with RoHS standards.

RoHS regulations require products in 11 categories to be tested before they are sold in the EU. Among them are:

• washers and stoves
• treadmills
• medical devices
• phones
• vacuum cleaners
• and more

Companies must limit amounts of hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PDBE) in their electrical products. For example, products must contain less than 1,000 parts per million of those substances under RoHS.

Lead, cadmium, halo-generated flame retardants, and antimony trioxide are some of the other substances one could find within electrical equipment like rechargeable batteries and LCD displays. These substances are known to cause brain and organ damage, as well as hormonal disturbances. 

However, there are some exemptions that companies should be aware of when considering products for the EU. Companies are given a period of time to bring their production practices into compliance with RoHS. This is because electronics traditionally contain a large amount of the restricted substances. 

Regulators may rarely exempt a specific product, such as lead as a connector in X-Ray image intensifiers. The list of exemptions now numbers more than 300. Exemptions have an expiration date and must be reviewed every four years; in the meantime, experts are required to test potential replacement substances. A manufacturer that can’t find a replacement by the expiration date can apply for an extension. From there, they have 12 to 18 months before regulators declare the product out of compliance. 

Although these types of regulations like RoHS exist, regulation typically lag behind innovation several years. It take time for governments to test, verify, and then finally list new substances that may be harmful. In the meantime those substances can be used in products which puts them out into the environment and in contact with humans.