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RoHS and WEEE - Reducing Toxicity and Waste in
Electronic Product Design
Chen-Yu Cheng, Ph.D., P.E.
Overview
"On December 4th of 2001, CNN
reported on the Netherlands government's seizure of 1.3 million Sony Playstation
game machines. The estimated value of the items seized was $162 million US. The
reason: Cadmium in some of the cables..."
With the price of consumer
electronic products becoming more affordable with shorter life cycles, the
effects of waste and toxicity to our health and environment becomes a more
serious problem. Voluntary compliance to mend this problem has been
ineffective. Thus, the problem is being addressed through legislation. The
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) and the Restriction
of the use of certain Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) were enacted
effective July 1, 2006 in the European Union (EU).
If you are involved in
manufacturing of electronic products in the US, it is important for you to
understand if your product is at risk when exporting to Europe or other areas in
the world with similar legislation. Many other areas in the world have (or will
have) legislation, including Japan and China, which addresses the waste and
toxicity in products by imposing stringent rules on manufacturers. In the
United States, mirroring RoHs in EU, California Proposition 65 addresses toxic
components in manufactured products, and imposes a penalty of up to 2500 USD per
day for violation of the law. It is clear that there is an ever-increasing push
for more environmentally stringent manufacturing policies across the whole of
industry in the world.
This course is intended to
provide the basic background information to show the foundation from which RoHS
and WEEE were developed so that you can identify whether your product is at
risk. The course is intended to be useful for those who:
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have recently become
involved in RoHs and WEEE compliance,
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are aware that they will
soon become involved in the application of RoHs and WEEE to their products,
and
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are interested in a review
of the regulation
This course is based on a
paper published by Premier Farnell plc. that provides a very concise
introduction to help the student understand the basics of RoHS and WEEE.
The student must take a
multiple-choice quiz consisting of twelve (12) questions at the end of this course to earn PDH credits.
Specific Knowledge or Skill Attained
This course teaches the following specific knowledge and
skills:
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What are RoHS and
WEEE?
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The hazardous
substances covered by RoHS
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Who is required to
comply with RoHS and WEEE?
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What categories of
products are covered by RoHS and WEEE?
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When is it necessary
to analyze a product for compliance
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Products where
restricted substances are likely to be found
Course
Click on the following PDF attachments
and review the document prior to taking a quiz for credit.
RoHS
and WEEE
Having Trouble Downloading the PDF File?
Right click on the link. Select "Save Target As..."
Then save on your desktop. To view the file, double click the icon on your
desktop and return to this page to take the quiz.
You may need Acrobat Reader to view this document.
Click on the link below to download a free copy of Acrobat Reader.
To obtain PDH credits for this course, you will need to take a quiz for
credit. Click on the link below.
(To take the quiz,
your web browser must be set to accept cookies. See how to
check your cookie settings.)
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