Author Archives: ECD_admin

USA – Reporting Requirements for Nanomaterials

The U.S. EPA is proposing a regulation that will require organizations in the US that manufacture or process nanomaterials to submit reports to the EPA. The EPA expects that this will provide information that it needs to facilitate risk assessment and risk mitigation. The following WTO notification provides a general overview of the proposed requirement.

EPA is proposing reporting and recordkeeping requirements for certain chemical substances when they are manufactured or processed at the nanoscale as described in this rule. Specifically, EPA proposes to require persons that manufacture (defined by statute to include import) or process, or intend to manufacture or process these chemical substances to electronically report to EPA certain information, which includes the specific chemical identity, production volume, methods of manufacture and processing, exposure and release information, and existing data concerning environmental and health effects. This proposal involves one-time reporting for existing nanoscale materials and one-time reporting for new discrete nanoscale materials before they are manufactured or processed. This information would facilitate EPA’s evaluation of the materials and a determination of whether further action, including additional information collection, is needed. Consistent with the President’s memorandum for Executive Agencies regarding Principles for Regulation and Oversight of Emerging Technologies, this proposed rule would facilitate assessment of risks and risk management, examination of the benefits and costs of further measures, and making future decisions based on available scientific evidence.

The comment period is open until July 6, 2015. Information about submitting a comment is provided with the notification in the federal register.

The EEE industry has been a growing user for nanomaterials, providing beneficial properties in products (including many EEE components).

EU – Update on RoHS Exemption Renewals

The European Commission received 87 RoHS Annex III exemption renewal requests before the January 21, 2015 deadline. Most of the renewal requests were based on proposals developed by industry association working groups. The exemptions will expire on July 21, 2016 for most products unless the renewal applications are successful. For some exemptions, multiple renewal requests were submitted by different stakeholders. The requests will be put through the review and stakeholder consultation over the coming months to determine whether the renewals are justified according to the criteria specified in the Directive.

For most of the renewal requests, the proposal is to simply renew the existing wording of the exemption; for a few exemptions, modified wording is proposed. The Annex III exemptions that are due for expiry and have no exemption renewal request (as of January 21, 2015) are listed in Table 2.

Table 2: Exemptions with no renewal request by January 21, 2015

IndexTitle
2(b)(2)Mercury in other fluorescent lamps not exceeding (per lamp):Non-linear halophosphate lamps (all diameters): 15 mg
5(a)Lead in glass of cathode ray tubes
17Lead halide as radiant agent in high intensity discharge (HID) lamps used for professional reprography applications
25Lead oxide in surface conduction electron emitter displays (SED) used in structural elements, notably in the seal frit and frit ring
30Cadmium alloys as electrical/mechanical solder joints to electrical conductors located directly on the voice coil in transducers used in high-powered loudspeakers with sound pressure levels of 100 dB (A) and more
31Lead in soldering materials in mercury free flat fluorescent lamps (which e.g. are used for liquid crystal displays, design or industrial lighting)
33Lead in solders for the soldering of thin copper wires of 100 micrometer diameter and less in power transformers
38Cadmium and cadmium oxide in thick film pastes used on aluminium bonded beryllium oxide

Four renewal requests received by the Commission are already underway and the public consultation is scheduled to begin in March. A summary of the renewal requests and the project is available on the project website. The project (referred to as Pack 7) is expected to complete in September 2015.

Impact on Manufacturers

If the renewal of an Annex III exemption that you are currently using is not successful or if the scope of the exemption is narrowed whereby your products/applications are no longer covered, the expiry may have a significant technical and business impact on your organization. If the expired exemption was used by your suppliers, the suppliers may need to design out the restricted substance. However, given the R&D investment to do so, some suppliers may discontinue parts that do not have sufficient business justification. If parts are discontinued, then OEMs will need to identify and qualify substitutes.

If the restricted substance is directly specified by your organization (for example in a material specified on a mechanical drawing or during manufacturing operations); then redesign will be necessary to eliminate the restricted substance.

Regardless of whether the exemption is used by a supplier or in your product design specifications, your organization will need to update its RoHS technical documentation file to demonstrate that the exemption is no longer being used.

 Updates

The renewal request for exemption 7(b) was withdrawn on April 9, 2015. See blog article RoHS Exemption 7(b) Renewal Request is Withdrawn

U.S. Executive Order — Federal Purchasing and Sustainability Requirements

On March 19, 2015, the U.S. President, Barack Obama, signed Executive Order 13693 for advancing sustainability objectives in the U.S. Federal Government. The Executive Order specifies requirements on Policy, Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions, Sustainability Goals for Agencies, and Duties of various Federal government offices and officers. The Executive Order is available on the Whitehouse website.

Of specific interest to many EEE manufacturers that sell products to the U.S. government is subsection 3(i) that directs federal purchasing to sustainable products (excerpted below).

3(i) promote sustainable acquisition and procurement by ensuring that each of the following environmental performance and sustainability factors are included to the maximum extent practicable for all applicable procurements in the planning, award, and execution phases of the acquisition by:

(i) meeting statutory mandates that require purchase preference for:

(A) recycled content products designated by EPA;

(B) energy and water efficient products and services, such as ENERGY STAR qualified and Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP)-designated products, identified by EPA and the Department of Energy (DOE); and

(C) BioPreferred and biobased designated products designated by the United States Department of Agriculture;

(ii) purchasing sustainable products and services identified by EPA programs including:

(A) Significant New Alternative Policy (SNAP) chemicals or other alternatives to ozone-depleting substances and high global warming potential hydrofluorocarbons, where feasible, as identified by SNAP;

(B) WaterSense certified products and services (water efficient products);

(C) Safer Choice labeled products (chemically intensive products that contain safer ingredients); and

(D) SmartWay Transport partners and SmartWay products (fuel efficient products and services);

(iii) purchasing environmentally preferable products or services that:

(A) meet or exceed specifications, standards, or labels recommended by EPA that have been determined to assist agencies in meeting their needs and further advance sustainable procurement goals of this order; or

(B) meet environmental performance criteria developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies consistent with section 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-113) and OMB Circular A-119;

(iv) acting, as part of the implementation of planning requirements of section 14 of this order, until an agency achieves at least 95 percent compliance with the BioPreferred and biobased purchasing requirement in paragraph (i) of this subsection, to:

(A) establish an annual target for the number of contracts to be awarded with BioPreferred and biobased criteria and dollar value of BioPreferred and biobased products to be delivered and reported under those contracts in the following fiscal year. To establish this target, agencies shall consider the dollar value of designated BioPreferred and biobased products reported in previous years, the specifications reviewed and revised for inclusion of BioPreferred and biobased products, and the number of applicable product and service contracts to be awarded, including construction, operations and maintenance, food services, vehicle maintenance, and janitorial services; and

(B) ensure contractors submit timely annual reports of their BioPreferred and biobased purchases; and

(v) reducing copier and printing paper use and acquiring uncoated printing and writing paper containing at least 30 percent postconsumer recycled content or higher as designated by future instruction under section 4(e) of this order;

The requirements specified in this subsection replaces the previous Executive Order 13423 of January 24, 2007 which directed federal agencies to purchase IT products that were EPEAT registered.

Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) that provide specifications, standards, or labels that meet the requirements will need to be developed. This has the potential to bring many other types of EEE products within scope of sustainability requirements.

ECD Compliance will be tracking the implementation of this Executive Order and will provide updates when new information becomes available.

[1] Executive Order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/19/executive-order-planning-federal-sustainability-next-decade

EU – Renewal Proposal for RoHS Exemption 7(b) Withdrawn

The consultants that are assessing the EU RoHS exemption renewal applications have notified stakeholders that the renewal application for exemption 7(b) (which had been submitted with a reduced scope of “Lead in solders for RF switching matrices and associated RF signal distribution equipment for telecommunications”) has been withdrawn by the applicant.

The European Commission intends to close the related renewal procedure and removed the proposal from the current stakeholder consultation.

Canada – Proposal to Restrict Five Substance Groups

Environment Canada has published proposed regulations to restrict the manufacture, sale and use of the five substances listed below. The “Proposed Regulations Amending the Canadian Prohibition of Certain Substances Regulations, 2012” were published on April 4, 2015 in the Canada Gazette Part I. The proposed amendment adds five substances to the Prohibition Regulations, including the substances:

  • hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD);
  • perfluorooctanoic acid, its salts, and its precursors (PFOA);
  • perfluorocarboxylic acids, their salts, and their precursors (LC-PFCAs);
  • olybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs); and
  • perfluorooctane sulfonate and its salts and its precursors (PFOS).

These substances have known uses in a variety of consumer and commercial products including several types of electrical and electronic products. A public comment period is open from April 4, 2015 to June 18, 2015.

In general, the substance restrictions take effect immediately after the coming into force of the regulations. Temporary exemptions and long-term permitted uses have been specified for specific applications for some of the substances.

EU REACH – 48 Substances to be Reviewed in 2015

ECHA has adopted a plan to evaluate 134 substances under the REACH regulation during the 2015-2017 timeframe. The plan, which is referred to as the Community rolling action plan (CoRAP), lists the substances that EU member states will be assessing and proposing as potential SVHCs for the Candidate List or other possible regulation under REACH. The plan contains 134 substances, 66 of which have been newly selected and 68 substances that are left over from the plan that was announced in March 2014.

Of the 134 substances, the intention is to evaluate at least 48 of the substances in 2016, another 48 substances in 2016, and 38 substances in 2017.

[1] ECHA press Release: http://echa.europa.eu/view-article/-/journal_content/title/evaluation-kicks-off-for-48-substances-in-2015

[2] ECHA proposal to the Member States: Draft Community Rolling Action Plan (CoRAP) update for years 2015-2017 http://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/13628/corap_2015_2017_en.pdf

[3] For additional information on the March 2014 plan, see the ECD blog post at http://rohs.ca/blog/2014/03/28/march-26-2014-eu-identifies-120-substances-for-evaluation-as-possible-svhcs/

EU REACH – Consultation for Two New SVHCs

A public consultation on two new SVHC Candidate List proposals began on March 2, 2015 and will continue through April 16, 2015. The new substances proposed for addition to the SVHC Candidate List are:

  • 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, di-C6-10-alkyl esters; 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, mixed decyl and hexyl and octyl diesters with ≥ 0.3% of dihexyl phthalate (EC No. 201-559-5)
  • 5-sec-butyl-2-(2,4-dimethylcyclohex-3-en-1-yl)-5-methyl-1,3-dioxane [1], 5-sec-butyl-2-(4,6-dimethylcyclohex-3-en-1-yl)-5-methyl-1,3-dioxane [2] [covering any of the individual isomers of [1] and [2] or any combination thereof]

Assuming that no major discrepancies are identified during the consultation, the new SVHCs will likely be added to the SVHC Candidate List in June 2015.

The IEC 62474 validation team is currently assessing these substances to determine if they are constituents of EEE. The first substance is specified as a combination of two phthalates (neither of which is an SVHC) with small quantity (above 0.3%) of DnHP — this substance description is likely to be a challenge for the EEE supply chain to deal with.

RoHS Enforcement – Feb 2015

Information on several EU RoHS non-conformity issues have come to light over the past couple months.

Slovenia identified two RoHS non-compliant products on the EU RAPEX rapid alert system. European countries use the RAPEX system to facilitate the rapid exchange of information between Member States and the Commission about product non-conformities.

  1. Product: HAND BLENDER; Brand: SIMPEX; Name: Stabmixer; Risk: Certain solders on PCB and on motor contain lead (measured value up to 80.0%). The product does not comply with the Directive 2011/65/EC (RoHS 2) on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electric and electronic equipment.
  2. Product: AVIA Clock radio with alarm; Risk: The black plastic of the antenna wire, the orange plastic of the capacitor and brass component contain lead (measured value up to 0.19%), while some solders on PCB and brass component contain cadmium (measured value up to 0.071%). The product does not comply with the Directive 2011/65/EC (RoHS 2) on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electric and electronic equipment.

The UK RoHS enforcement authority, the National Measurements Office (NMO), published the results of a RoHS and Battery Directive compliance study on EEE toys. The report, released on February 20, 2015, highlights that 40% of the 15 products assessed had failed compliance for substance content, marking or batteries. The study focused on higher priced toys that ranged from £30 to over £100. The toys included: Educational Toys (x3), Sports and Outdoor Toys (x3), Musical Toys (x3), 0-3 Years Toys (x3), and 3+ Years Toys (x3).

Prior to testing, the NMO assessed each of the products and companies in terms of risk (previous history of company, product risk, subjectivity, size of company and market reach). The NMO is trying to develop a comprehensive risk assessment model and will use the results to help refine the model.

The report states that 2 out of 3 of the educational toys and 2 out of 3 of the 0-3 years toys were non-compliant. Of particular concern were riding toys of which 3 out of a total of 6 were non-compliant across the product categories.

In usual NMO fashion, none of the brand names or retailers/importers were identified in the report. The report indicates that investigations were opened into the non-compliant products and have progressed to what the NMO refers to as “appropriate outcomes”.

Conflict Minerals Reports due June 1, 2015 – Apple First to File

For those companies that are required to disclose their conflict minerals status under U.S. SEC rules, the 2014 Conflict Minerals disclosure (SEC Form SD) and conflict minerals report are due on Monday June 1, 2015.

Apple was the first company to file their 2014 conflict minerals report, several months ahead of the deadline. In being first, the Apple sets the bar before some other U.S. electronics manufacturers have even started writing their report. To no one’s surprise, Apple declared that the use of conflict minerals within their supply chain to be conflict indeterminate – this is the last of two years when they may claim this status.

In the conflict minerals report, Apple explains the steps that they have taken and the progress that they have made towards eliminating conflict minerals that directly or indirectly fund armed groups in the DRC. Apple explains that its Conflict Minerals program is driving its supply chain to use only smelters and refiners that have been certified to the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative’s Conflict-Free Smelter Program (CFSP). The report provides statistics that 199 of 225 smelters and refiners in its supply chain have been verified as conflict free or are in the audit process for certification. This is more than double the number of smelters and refiners identified in 2013.

The main body of the Apple Conflict Minerals Report is less than 10 pages in length. An additional 10 pages is provided for a table (Annex I) listing all of the smelters and refiners that were identified in Apple’s supply chain.

CEN/CENELEC – Standardization Roadmap for 2015

The European Standardization Bodies CENELEC and CEN (which are the EU regional counterparts to IEC and ISO respectively) have published their 2015 roadmap of new standardization activities. This roadmap reflects the mandates that the two SDOs (standards development organizations) have received from the European Commission (EC) to develop standards needed for future regulations. It provides manufacturers with insight to emerging regulatory areas for environmental compliance of products sold in the EU.

In the Environment section of the roadmap, standardization requests from EC/EFTA include:

  • M/424 – Water Framework Directive
  • M/478 – Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
  • M/503 – Ambient air quality legislation
  • M/513 – Gaseous hydrogen chloride (HCl) emissions
  • M/514 – Volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions
  • M/518 – Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
  • M/526 – Adaptation to Climate Change

Elements of EU Work Programme for 2015 include:

  • 4. Waste recycling
  • 6. Air quality and industrial emissions
  • 4. Climate change and Resource Efficient Europe

Other standardization and activities relevant to the EEE industry and to be developed in 2015 include:

Resource efficiency – CEN and CENELEC will continue discussions with the European Commission with the aim of identifying possible standards that could contribute to the implementation of the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe (COM(2011) 571), which is one of the flagship initiatives under the Europe 2020 Strategy. It is possible that some new standardization activities will be launched in 2015.

Substances of high concern – CEN will complete the development of a standardization roadmap in relation to substances of high concern in articles, based on consultations with industry representatives and other stakeholders. The aim of this exercise is to identify which new standards might be needed to support the implementation of relevant European legislation such as the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulation, the Waste Directives, the POP (Persistent Organic Pollutants) Regulation, and the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment) Directive.

Several standards already exist within the EEE industry to address substance of high concern; however, few such standards exist for other products. Therefore, CEN has been asked to look at possible standards across all products (not just EEE). The key risk for the EEE industry is if any of the standards conflict with the existing EEE standards and force the EEE industry to change its procedures for restricted substance control.