Identification of substances

• Author: Clemm, Christan; Löw, Clara; Baron, Yifaat; Moch, Katja; Möller, Martin; Köhler, Andreas R; Gensch, Carl-Otto; Deubzer, Otmar
• Pages: 9-22

Euro pean Comm issio n

In ven tor y an d p rior iti satio n

9

3. Part I I DEN TI FI CATI ON OF SUBSTAN CES

The aim of Part I is to id enti fy all su bstances in EEE, w hich may cause risks for th e

env iron ment d urin g use2 or risks for th e envir onm ent and w orkers dur ing WEEE

manag ement or hav e an y othe r n egat ive imp acts du ring waste manag ement, as

specified by RoHS 2, Article 6.

App roach : The standar dize d m eth odology allo ws f or a st epw ise p roced ure for

assessing substan ces fo r possib le future restriction und er Ro HS in ord er to fulf il t he

overall go al of protectin g hu man health and th e env iron men t from negative impacts

relat ed t o use or t o WEEE m anagem ent .

The identif icati on of p otentially RoHS-rel evant substances used in EEE invol ves t hree

majo r t asks:

 Creation of an inventory of subst ances (P I Step 1):

− Upd atin g infor mation on su bstances classifi ed or su spect ed as hazar dous (P I

Step 1 a);

− Updating info rmation on su bstan ces used a nd/ or present 3 in EEE ( P I Step 1b);

 Pre-assessm ent of prio rit y of substan ces listed in th e in vent ory (P I Step 2) :

− First ru n of th e pr e-assessmen t t o est abli sh classif ication of su bsta nces to

pr iorit y g roup s (P I Step 2a) ;

− Stakeh older consult atio n for collect ing inf ormation on subst ances in t he

invent ory wit h f ocus on the sub stances in th e highest pr iori ties (P I Step 2b);

 Update information i n t he in vent ory and re-r un pre-assessmen t t o conclude on

sub stan ces in h ighest pri orit ies4 t o b e subject refined p rior itisa tion in P I I (P I Step

3) .

An invento ry of su bst ances used in EEE w as estab lished d uring the first rev iew of

Annex I I of RoHS in 20 13-2 014. The inventory established in 2 013 AUBA5 ( Kari gl et al.

20 14) pro vides a first b asis t o b e up dated i n t he f ollowin g perio dic rev iews. Each

further revision shou ld u se t he init ial i nven tory of t he l ast revision as a fir st b asis t o b e

2 Art icle 6(1 )( b) p rov ides inte r ali a th e ba sis fo r r estr ictin g a subst ance, sho uld its u ses g ive r ise t o

unc ontr olle d or dif fuse relea se int o t he e nvir onm ent of t he subst ance. This is u nder stood to ref er t o

poss ible relea ses r elate d t o th e int end ed u se of a sub stan ce bu t al so t o non -int ended use, for exa mpl e

in the case of bre akage .

3 Sub stan ces use d in ma nuf actu re of EEE m ay o r m ay n ot be pr esent in the fin al p rod uct. Sim ilar ly,

sub stance s pre sent in EEE m ay o r m ay no t hav e be en ap plied in this for m i n th e m anuf actur e. The

inv ent ory shall upd ate info rma tion on subst ances used in m anu fact ure and o n su bstan ces p resen t in

EEE, spe cifyi ng p resen ce wh ere this dat a is f oun d to allo w a diff eren tiat ion a t la ter stag es.

4 The num ber of su bsta nce ( pri orit y cl asses) to be su bje cted to the prio rit isatio n of P II sh all b e

dis cussed and appr oved wit h t he EC, also depen ding on the stud y scop e.

5 Abb revi atio n fo r Aus tria n Um welt bun desam t Gm bH (AUBA)