Where are REACH SVHC in Electronics?

Walter Jager
Intertek
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

The European REACH regulation (Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006) imposes requirements to declare and sometimes restrict the use of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC). REACH affects all product types and forces the electronics industry to investigate substances that have not commonly been declared down the supply chain. On October 28, 2008, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) published the initial Candidate list of 15 SVHC. Non-government Organizations (NGOs) are pushing for rapid introduction of additional SVHC and several EU member states are already preparing their next round of SVHC submissions to the European Chemical Agency. The short time frame in which SVHC are introduced creates a significant challenge for all actors in the electronics industry as many manufacturers will not know if presence of the substance is possible or likely in their products.

This paper summarizes the results of the first year of assessing electronic products and parts for SVHC. The testing involves multiple manufacturers and a variety of product types. Assessment methods based on analytical testing, rule of thumb, and engineering judgment are discussed. Some SVHC are considered to be commonly used in electronic parts and materials while other SVHC are unlikely constituents.

We present a summary of results obtained from performing analytical testing for the Candidate list SVHC substances in various types of products and parts. The testing was performed in analytical test labs in North America, Asia, and Europe. A technical understanding of which parts and materials are likely to contain each SVHC and which parts and materials are not likely (or not possible) to contain an SVHC allows manufacturers to perform a risk assessment and focus their effort on the highest risk parts and SVHC.