European Union : FAQ
Question 11: What are the exemptions?
The RoHS directive does not apply to the following fields:
- Large-scale stationary industrial tools (a machine or system consisting of a combination of equipment, systems or products, each of which is manufactured and intended to be used only in fixed industrial applications).
- Spare parts for the repair of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) put on the market before 1 July 2006 and replacement parts designed to expand the capacity of and/or upgrade EEE placed on the market before 1 July 2006.
- The reuse of EEE placed on the market before 1 July 2006.
- Electrical and electronic equipment which is part of another type of equipment or system (e.g. a car radio).
- The specific applications of mercury, lead, cadmium and hexavalent chromium indicated below.
Applications of lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium which are exempted from the requirements of Article 4(1) of the RoHS Directive (this list is still under consideration by the European Commission)
1. Mercury in compact fluorescent lamps not exceeding 5 mg per lamp.
2. Mercury in straight fluorescent lamps for general purposes not exceeding:
- halophosphate 10 mg
- triphosphate with normal lifetime 5 mg
- triphosphate with long lifetime 8 mg
4. Mercury in other lamps not specifically mentioned in this Annex.
5. Lead in glass of cathode ray tubes, electronic components and fluorescent tubes.
6. Lead as an alloying element in steel containing up to 0.35% lead by weight, aluminium containing up to 0.4% lead by weight and as a copper alloy containing up to 4% lead by weight.
7. Lead in high melting temperature type solders (i.e. tin-lead solder alloys containing more than 85% lead),
- lead in solders for servers, storage and storage array systems, and for equipment designed for network management in the telecommunications field,
- lead in electronic ceramic parts (e.g. piezoelectronic devices).
8. Cadmium and its compounds in electrical contacts and cadmium plating except for applications banned under Directive 91/338/EEC (1) amending Directive 76/769/EEC (2) relating to restrictions on the marketing and use of certain dangerous substances and preparations.
9. Hexavalent chromium as an anti-corrosion agent for carbon steel cooling systems in absorption refrigerators.
10. Lead used in compliant pin connector systems.
11. Lead as a coating material for the thermal conduction module C-ring.
12. Lead and cadmium in optical and filter glass.
13. Lead in solders consisting of more than 2 elements for the connection between the pins and the package of microprocessors with a lead content of more than 80% and less than 85% by weight.
14. Lead in solders to complete a viable electrical connection between semiconductor die and carrier within integrated circuit flip chip packages.
At the time of writing (June 2005), in addition to the above exemptions there are eight exemptions being reviewed, nineteen out to tender and beyond that 18 further applications awaiting assessment by the European Commission.
Batteries and storage batteries are not part of the RoHS Directive and are covered by their own legislation.
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