The RoHS Directive aims to minimise the environmental impact of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) by reducing the quantities of four heavy metals and two brominated flame retardants which it may contain.

Products placed on the EU market on or after 1 July 2006 may not contain more than the specified limits of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE).

The Directive applies primarily to those who manufacture Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE), those who import these goods into the EU; those who export to other EU Member States; and those who re-brand equipment produced by others.

The RoHS Directive draws its scope from the WEEE Directive and applies to categories 1-7 and 10 listed under Annex 1A of the Directive plus electric light bulbs and household luminaires. The categories are:

1. Large household appliances

2. Small household appliances

3. IT & Telecommunication equipment

4. Consumer equipment

5. Lighting equipment

6. Electrical & Electronic tools

7. Toys, leisure & sports equipment; and

10. Automatic Dispensers.

There are a number of exempted applications for these substances which can be found in the "BERR Government Guidance Notes" on the BERR website.

The Oko-Institut and Fraunhofer IZM recently won a EU Commission tender to evaulate the existing and submitted exemptions, with the project due to be finalised by 30 October 2008. A stakeholder consultation is due to start in early 2008. More information on this project can be found at rohs.exemptions.oeko.info.

The European Commission have also published its 2nd Stakeholder Consultation on the review of the RoHS Directive which can be found at the Commission's WEEE site, with a deadline for responses due by 13 February 2008.

In the UK, the National Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML) is the UK enforcement body for RoHS and have developed a website to provide information and help with RoHS compliance and enforcement issues - www.rohs.gov.uk