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Product category: Legislation, REACH, WEEE and RoHS News
News Release from: Editorial Articles: Miscellaneous submissions | Subject: REACH from FBDI
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial Team on 12 May 2008

FBDI commentary on REACH legislation

FBDI in Germany is committed to the protection of the environment and to the necessity for a chemicals regulation, but questions the legal and administrative bureaucracy associated with REACH

"Every player in the supply chain has to define its role precisely under REACH and must be able to apply or implement it in practice," according to the key demand of the Fachverbandes der Bauelemente Distribution, FBDI eV (the trade association of German electronic components distributors), in response to European Chemicals regulation, REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of Chemicals) Everyone involved throughout the supply chain may be affected: manufacturers, distributors, as well as OEM or distribution customers, irrespective of how much in the way of possibly dangerous ingredients they buy or process in products from EU or non-EU states

For distributors this means duties as importers, producers or suppliers of products.

"A willingness to cooperate between the parties involved is essential for the professional handling of REACH, and transparency of information between manufacturers, distributors and customers is indispensable in that context," declares the FBDI.

The vision of the association goes even further.

In the medium term it would be efficient in terms of costs and resources to define a standard according to which the data relating to REACH would be acquired and processed.

A major project, the planning and implementation of which would be a challenge to the entire electronics industry.

The FBDI has already put in place a few milestones with its REACH offensive: The topic is being considered and discussed on a broad front within the electronics industry.

Manufacturers and distributors are working even more closely than ever on the transparent flow and exchange of information.

Leading manufacturers are supporting the REACH offensive of the FBDI.

The FBDI environment working party has passed a joint guideline on customer communications.

Transparency in relation to the legal situation was provided by a REACH workshop initiated together with Allen and Overy, as well as close collaboration with the law firm in terms of public relations.

Discussion about REACH has so far been of a rather abstract nature, as the candidate list of potentially hazardous substances is not scheduled for publication by the EU until the end of the year.

Only then will it be possible to assess whether products will disappear from the market, and what effects are to be expected for the industry with regard to investment security and long-term availability.

The FBDI is clearly committed to the protection of the environment and to the necessity for a Chemicals regulation, but questions the legal and administrative bureaucracy associated with REACH.

"Small and medium-sized businesses are particularly overstretched by REACH, because their staffing resources alone put into question their ability to deal with REACH in an adequate manner".

The TDBI provides crucial skills and lobbying in this context, offering its members the opportunity for a wide-ranging transfer of knowledge and dialogue within the electronics industry.

Information is essential.

Even if a distributor is not subject to any registration obligations under REACH, it must still know the ingredients and concentrations of any hazardous substances in its products in order to be able to fulfil its duties of notification to the European Chemicals Agency in Helsinki and its duty to supply information to its customers.

If there is no information available with regard to composition of a material, this may lead to an import ban according to the premise, "no data, no market".

"The key factor is in any case the interaction of the supply chain," states Wolfram Ziehfuss, CEO of the FBDI: "To the fore are the manufacturers, who are required to provide information about the ingredients in a usable form, which is clear and meaningful and leaves no scope for interpretation.

It would good if we had a declaration similar to the one for RoHS, which both distributors and customers could work with in any system," continues Ziehfuss.

What can customer currently expect? The distributors of the FBDI are in agreement: "We want to help our customers to the best of our ability in dealing with REACH.

That also includes providing all the available information," says Ziehfuss.

The dialogue with the manufacturers is in full swing.

The manufacturers are currently checking and working on their quality guidelines for dealing with REACH.

So far, however, the situation with regard to product-specific information in relation to REACH is still at the development stage for many manufacturers, and for that reason data is only available to a limited extent.

"For the time being we are having to refer any customers who make enquiries of our members to the ingredients declarations (MDDS material declaration data sheet) and if applicable to the safety data sheets (MSDS material safety data sheet), because there is currently no other data available from the manufacturers," says Ziehfuss, describing the statement defined by the association in relation to customer communications.

The safety data sheets list all the hazardous substances that are contained in products, as well as their approximate concentration values.

"Simply as a result of the unresolved information situation, our members are not in a position at the moment to confirm for enquiring customers whether particular substances are included, or whether specific products will have to be reformulated or withdrawn as a result of REACH".

There will be no clarity on this point until after the list of candidates has been published.

There will be some initial indications of candidates from 1 August at the earliest, and expectations among the experts are for initial publication in the spring of 2009.

"From now on the members of the FBDI should carefully follow the development of the list of candidates on the website of the European Chemicals Agency," advises Dr Bettina Enderle, a lawyer at Allen and Overy.

Legal digression (according to Allen and Overy).

The members of the FBDI might be affected in a variety of ways by the provisions of regulation #1907/2006 on the registration, assessment, approval and restriction of chemicals.

Since, for the time being, they are importing electronic components into the EU.

The electronic components consist of semiconductors, passive components such as resistors or LEDs (light-emitting diodes = electronic semiconductors) and electro-mechanical components such as plug connectors.

They also trade in electronic components within the EU.

In addition to which, some of the members of the FBDi also use chemicals when manufacturing electronic components or subassemblies (e.g by soldering the semiconductors onto the circuit board).

In some cases the electronic components are also processed by the customers.

Finally, some members of the FBDi import and/or sell printer cartridges and similar products.

When does a distributor have to register? The duty to register comes into consideration from the outset only for the importers of electronic components and similar products from non-EU countries.

Dealers or suppliers of products are on the other hand not obliged to register.

An importer of a product must register it in accordance with the provisions of the REACH regulation if, it obtains the product from a non-EU manufacturer, the substance is contained in the product in a quantity of over 1 t/a per importer, and is to be released under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use.

In the case of semiconductors, active resistors and LEDs, no materials escape from them in their reasonably foreseeable applications (intended usage).

That means the fundamental mandatory registration does not apply.

Things are different with printer cartridges.

In this case the release of printer ink is intentional, with the result that registration is mandatory if the quantity threshold of 1 t/a per importer is exceeded and the substance has not already been registered by the manufacturer for this use.

The Agency can also require registration in individual cases if, for example, a substance is released (unintentionally) from products and may represent a risk to human health or the environment.

Moreover, there may be duties of notification (article 7, section 2 REACH regulation), which must be examined in detail.

When does the duty of notification apply? Even if there are no obligations to register, there may be duties of notification on the part of the importer.

The duty of notification is irrespective of whether emission during manufacture is intended.

Duties of notification only exist if the manufactured or imported electronic components contain a hazardous substance in a quantity totalling more that 1 t/a per manufacturer.

The substance must also have a mass concentration of more than 0.1 percent mass in this product, and exposure takes place (1).

When does the duty to supply information apply? Importers and suppliers of products are also subject to the duty to supply information.

The latter include in particular the distributors who obtain products from EU member states.

Suppliers of a product in terms of the REACH regulation include not only the producer and importer of a product but also every dealer or subsequent user in the supply chain who puts a product into circulation.

For that reason the members of the association who only sell the products (i.e do not import them into the EU) must also fulfil the duties to inform arising from article 33 of the REACH regulation.

The conditions for this are as follows: a substance in a product is classed as especially worrying, is on the list of candidates and is contained in the product in a quantity in excess of 0.1 percent mass.

Who has to inform who? Every supplier of a product of this sort must provide its customers with the information at its disposal that is adequate to ensure safe usage.

It must at least notify its customers of the name of the substance (article 33, section 1 REACH regulation).

"Customer" in terms of the REACH regulation is not a consumer but an industrial or commercial user or dealer to whom a product is supplied.

But the producer or importer of a product also has the duty to the consumer to pass on to the aforementioned information if the consumer requests it to do so (article 33, section 2 REACH regulation).

The information must be provided within 45 days.

The duty to inform applies as soon as a substance is included in the list of candidates.

### About the FBDI (www.fbdi.de).

The Fachverband der Bauelemente Distribution e.V (FBDi e.V), whose headquarters are in Neufahrn near Freising, has been an established key figure since 2004 in the German association group and currently comprises (as at November 2007) no fewer than 24 leading component distributors as members.

As such, the FBDI acts for a large number of distributors of electronic components represented in Germany.

In addition to the processing of information and further development of numerical data and statistics on the German distribution market for electronic components, involvement in study groups and reporting on important industrial topics constitute an essential pillar of the FBDI association work.

Current key topics include the implementation of RoHS, WEEE and REACH in line with market requirements.

The FBDi is a member of the Bundesverband der Dienstleistungswirtschaft (Federation of the German Service Industry).

### REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of Chemicals) refers to a new EU chemicals regulation, which has the objective of centralising and simplifying the law currently governing chemicals throughout Europe.

REACH will see the end of the distinction made between what are known as old substances (on the market prior to 1981) and new substances (first launched on the market after 1981).

Even today, new substances must be checked and assessed for any risks to human health or the environment before they are allowed to be launched on the market.

Unlike this list of around 4,000 substances, whose risk potential is made known in this way, we often only know very little about the 100,000 old substances.

This situation is to be changed by REACH.

The REACH system is based on the basic principle of individual responsibility.

According to the motto: "No data, no market", under REACH, only those chemical substances are allowed to be put into circulation for which sufficient data is available on the properties of the substances they contain.

This means that the manufacturer or importer himself is responsible for the safe handling of his chemical substance(s).

He is obliged to gather the data necessary for the evaluation and to forward this on along the value creation and supply chain.

REACH will record all chemical substances that are manufactured in or imported into the EU in the volume of at least one tonne per year.

In future, they must be registered with the newly founded European Chemicals Agency in Helsinki.

As a rule, substances are only allowed to be put into circulation following their (pre-)registration.

### Useful links (selection).

www.REACH-net.com (incl legal texts).

www.REACH-helpdesk.de.

www.REACH-info.de.

www.REACH-helpdesk.info.

www.REACHcentrum.org.

www.bdi-online.de/de/fachabteilungen/7240.htm.

http://www.reach.baden-wuerttemberg.de/servlet/is/23637/.

http://ec.europa.eu/echa/home_en.html.

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