Brominated flame retardents to continue

According to Dr Aiden Turnbull, head of WEEE, RoHS and EcoDesign at consultants ENVIRON, “Industry will welcome the Commission’s decision to drop its plans to ban TBBP-A [Tetrabromobisphenol A] a flame retardant used in over 90 per cent of all circuit boards”. This is despite overwhelming evidence that this substance, which interferes with cellular signalling pathways, is accumulated in marine and fresh water animals and has even been found in blood samples from European Union parliamentarians. Despite good intentions, old electronic products tend to end up in countries like China where PCBs are burned to recover value, dispersing TBBP-A and other toxics in the environment. Dr Turnbull continues, “The RoHS compliance burden will increase considerably by including RoHS within the CE marking regime and placing new obligations on importers and distributors. There are also concerns that the new policy on exemptions will limit innovation in some sectors. The consultancy is of the opinion that, “The physical or chemical properties of lead, cadmium, mercury or other hazardous substances provide significant technical advantages that far outweigh the environmental impacts. Innovative designs require considerable investment and time to bring them to market. Requiring all RoHS exemptions to be renewed every four years will prevent these long term investments”.