BANNOCKBURN, IL — A new white paper urges EU Council and Parliament members to ensure that the revised RoHS Directive is rooted in science and fully aligned with existing REACH rules.

In a press release yesterday, IPC cited a proposed amendment pending in the EU Parliament that bans all brominated and chlorinated flame retardants, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), chlorinated plasticizers and three phthalates. This amendment would weaken the scientific basis of the RoHS Directive and directly contradict the REACH Regulation, IPC asserts.

“Restricting an entire class of compounds — brominated and chlorinated flame retardants — without a strong scientific basis risks wasting societal resources to develop and implement substitutes and potentially risks unintended consequences associated with alternative substances,” IPC director Fern Abrams said.

According to the proposed amendment, Tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA), the primary brominated flame-retardant used in printed circuit boards, would be banned under a revised RoHS Directive. This would be a direct contradiction of REACH, IPC said, adding that "several scientific studies of TBBPA, including a comprehensive EU Risk Assessment, found TBBPA safe for human health and the environment."

“Fully aligning the RoHS Directive and REACH Regulation would ensure minimal regulatory overlap and affirm the EU’s credibility throughout the world,” says Lee Wilmot, director of environmental health and safety (EHS) at TTM Technologies and chair of IPC’s EHS Steering Committee. “In order to ensure a positive impact on the environment, the recast of RoHS must improve the scientific basis of this important environmental directive and unify European chemicals regulations by aligning the RoHS Directive with the REACH Regulation. Any contrary action would be considered political jockeying that could adversely affect the environment at significant costs to industry.”

IPC will submit Recasting the RoHS Directive: An Opportunity to Solidify its Scientific Basis in Support of Comprehensive Environmental Regulation to members of the EU Council and members of the EU Parliament’s Environment Committee, the trade group said.

The white paper can be downloaded here.

IPC's stance represents something of a turn from its position in January, when Abrams told CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY that "repeated attempts to identify IPC members using decaBDE resulted in a nil set. Furthermore, given the EU ruling on Deca, there is already pressure on the electronics market against the use of Deca. Therefore, given the number of other issues on IPC’s agenda, I don’t expect this to be a priority." At that time, Abrams stressed her comments were "her opinion" only, and that the EHS Committee had yet to weigh in.