DIRECTIVE 2002/95/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 27 January 2003

on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment

The RoHS directive requires that six hazardous substances be removed from all electrical and electronic equipment. The substances may be present incidentally at certain levels as long as they are declared. The six substances are Cadmium (Cd), hexavalent Chromium (CR VI), Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg), polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE). The maximum concentration of Cd is 0.01% by weight of homogeneous material, and 0.1% by weight for the other five substances. "Homogeneous material" means a material that cannot be mechanically disjointed into different materials (ref. 2). A substance is "present incidentally" if it was not intentionally added.