Delay on RoHS exemptions

This article has been contributed by Gary Nevison, Premier Farnell.

UK: Several people have asked me recently about the status on RoHS exemptions.

You may remember that on 23 March 2009 the Okö Institute and Fraunhofer IZM, private consultants hired by the European Commission (EC), released a report on their evaluation and assessment of existing and new requests for exemptions under the RoHS Directive.

They reviewed 29 exemptions and recommended that seven should not be continued.

They also evaluated five requests for new exemptions and they proposed the addition of one, declined one and were unable to make recommendations on the other three.

The consultants were also tasked with providing clearer and unambiguous wording on existing exemptions.

So, almost a year on, where are we now?

I understand that the TAC (Technical Adaptation Committee) is still waiting for the EC to circulate their “Commission Decision” which, if approved, would amend the exemption list that the TAC would then vote on.

While several drafts have been circulating the final version that will be voted on has not been sent to TAC members as yet.

So we remain in limbo on this important development!