. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/N/EU/12 
17 January 2012  
 (12-0246) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Notifying Member:  EUROPEAN UNION  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  mailto:eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Presence of lead and its 
compounds in jewellery articl es and hair accessories. 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Draft Commission 
Regulation amending Annex XVII to Regulat ion (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council on the Registrati on, Evaluation, Authoris ation and Restriction 
of Chemicals ("REACH") as regards lead  (6 pages, in English).      
6. Description of content:  The draft proposes to prohibit the use of lead and its compounds in 
jewellery and imitation jewellery articles and ha ir accessories and the placing on the market 
of such articles, if the lead concentration is eq ual to or greater than 0.05% by weight of any 
individual part of the article. A number of exemptions from the restriction are proposed, 
namely crystal glass, vitreous enamels, non-synthetic or reconstructed precious and 
semiprecious stones as well as internal co mponents of watch time pieces which are not 
accessible to consumers.  G/TBT/N/EU/12 
Page 2  
 
  7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Lead and lead compounds are commonly used in je wellery articles, in pa rticular in imitation 
jewellery. Data from available studies demonstrates that repeated exposure to lead contained in such articles may occur, which can result in severe and irreversible neurobehavioural and neuro-developmental effects. Children, by mouthing such articles, are particularly sensitive to this hazard given that their central nervous sy stem is still under development and that no 
threshold for neurotoxic effects have been identified in humans for this substance. On that 
basis it has been concluded that action on a Eu ropean Union-wide basis is necessary, beyond 
any measures already in place, in order to avoid as much as possible the exposure to lead and its compounds in jewellery articles.    
8. Relevant documents:   Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council on the Registration, Evaluation, Aut horisation and Restri ction of Chemicals 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ :L:2006:396:0001:0849:EN:PDF  
The compiled opinions of the Committees fo r Risk Assessment (R AC) and Socio-economic 
Analysis (SEAC):  
http://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/ aa4af911-5dae-4cf2-a337-6bdf81ee7536  
http://echa.europa.eu/documents/ 10162/aae1d985-ae57-44f 9-8556-c952a6e6d09b  
The background document to RAC and SEAC  opinions on Lead and its compounds: 
http://echa.europa.eu/documents/ 10162/c9388bba-2660-4c0e-946b-c3bbe5539940  
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    August 2012 
20 days after publication in  the Official Journal 
of the EU.  The provisions shall be applicable 
12 months after the date of entry into force. 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days from date of notification. 
11. Text available from:  National enquiry point [  ], or address, telephone and fax numbers, 
e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:    
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  mailto:eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
The text is available on the EU-TBT Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/    
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2012/tbt/EEC/12_0020_00_e.pdf