ROHS and WEEE Directive

RoHS and WEEE Directive

The Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) Directive in the European Union (EU), in conjunction with Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) legislation, aims to protect human health and the environment by restricting the use of certain hazardous substances in new electronic and electrical equipment.

The RoHS Directive is applicable to watches which use batteries.

RoHS becomes applicable after an electronic item has been disposed of. The aim of the directive is to reduce health and environmental risks after the article has been discarded, when potentially toxic elements can leach back into the earth and cause long term damage and pollution and in turn risk to human health.

RoHS is intended to affect manufacturers, sellers, distributors and recyclers of electrical and electronic equipment (including watches which use batteries) containing lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and will encompass materials both manufactured and imported into the EU.

The WEEE and RoHS Directives impose a number of challenges on the electronics industry. WEEE requires the recovery and recycling of electrical equipment and RoHS imposes the removal of lead (including leaded solder), mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium and two flame retardants from new electrical equipment sold after 1st July 2006.

If you manufacture, sell, distribute or recycle electrical and electronic equipment containing lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) Directive may apply. In order to comply you must make sure that all such products are checked. The limits apply to each component part of the product. Limit by weight: -

Lead	less than 0.1%
Mercury	less than 0.1%
Chromium (VI)	less than 0.1%
Cadmium	less than 0.01%
Flame-retardants	less than 0.1%
(These include Polybrominated biphenyls - PBB's and Polybrominated diphenyl ethers - PBDE's)