Telephones and printers will be the first electronics products that will have to be tested to show compliance to China’s version of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) law.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently released its Key Administrative Catalog for the Pollution Control of Electronic Information Products (Batch 1). The long-awaited document says that all forms of printers and telephones, including mobile, traditional landline and networking handsets, will have to be tested before they can be sold in China once this phase of the law is formally adopted by the Chinese government. However, more types of equipment will likely be included in future catalog “batches,” says Michael Kirschner, president of Design Chain Associates, a San Francisco consultancy that advises OEMs about environmental issues.
China RoHS, like Europe’s RoHS, restricts the use of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, traditional landline and networking handsets, will have to be tested before they can be sold in China once this phase of the law is formally adopted by the Chinese government. However, more types of equipment will likely be included in future catalog “batches,” says Michael Kirschner, president of Design Chain Associates, a San Francisco consultancy that advises OEMs about environmental issues. polybrominated biphenyls and polychlorinated ethers in electronics equipment. Phase 1 of China RoHS went into effect in 2007. However, at that time the only requirement was that OEMs label their products as being compliant to the law or not. The testing requirement is in phase 2 of the law, which included the release of the catalog.
The catalog release was supposed to occur in late 2007, says Gary Nevison, legislation and environmental affairs manager for electronics distributors Premier Farnell and Newark.
“But that slipped to mid 2008, then to mid 2009 and now two years on, here we are,” he says. “This is what the world was waiting for. In fact, the world got fed up waiting for it. But this is where China RoHS kicks into.”
While the law says products will have to be tested in China before they can be sold, details of the testing, including which test houses will be used, have not been released, says Nevison.
“China has said do not start testing until we tell you how to test, where to test and how to fill out the test forms,” says Kirschner at Design Chain Associates. “Presumably they are going to come out with some forms.”
Companies that sell electronics products in China can send comments about the law to MIIT during a “consultation” period that ended Nov. 9. After that, the Chinese government may approve the law and then the restrictions would go into effect 10 months after the approval.
The question is, will 10 months be enough for manufacturers to have their products tested and show compliance to the law? If they can’t show compliance in that timeframe, “the products cannot be sold in China,” Nevison says. “It will be interesting to see what happens.”
