Joe, Oh yes! It is very real and quite a can of worms.
The legislation is actually called "Restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment" or RoHS for short. It address several banned substances not just lead. The big ones from my perspective are: common PCB fire retardants, Hexavalent Chromium, and Lead (Pb). Other people's products may have issue with Mercury, Nickel, etc. I suggest that you read the legislation (as dry as it is) and start to get familiar with the implications. The implementation date is July 01, 2006 which in product development terms is the day after tomorrow. Here's a link to the directive: http://europa.eu.int/smartap /cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CEL Xnumdoc&lg=EN&numdoc=32002L0095&model=guichett There is also an accompanying directive for product take back "Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment" or WEEE. The text of the legislation can be found here: <http://europa.eu.int/sm rtapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!pro !CELEXnumdoc&lg=EN&numdoc=32002L0096&model=guichett>. It promises to be a major task for the operations folks in your company. Cheers, Marko From: owner-emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org [mailto:owner-emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org]On Behalf Of ext Burch,Joe Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 10:11 AM To: PSTC Subject: European Lead Free Legislation - 2006 Implementation? Hi Group, Has anyone heard of the European Lead Free Legislation - 2006 Implementation? Does anyone have any details on this? Your help is always appreciated. Thanks, Joe > Josiah P. Burch > Regulatory Compliance Engineer II > > AndoverControls > 300 Brickstone Square > Andover, MA 01810 USA > > We're Building Smart > > phone: +1 (978) 470-0555 ext. 335 > fax: +1 (978) 470-3615 > email: bur...@andovercontrols.com > web: http://www.andovercontrols.com > > Notice: This e-mail message, together with any attachments, contains information of Andover Controls Corporation and or Andover Controls LTD. which may be confidential, proprietary, copyrighted and/or legally privileged. This Email is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity named on the message. If you are not the intended recipient, and have received this message in error, please immediately return this by e-mail and then delete it. ============================================================================ == This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: emc_p...@symbol.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: emc_p...@symbol.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc