2006/691/EC: Commission Decision of 12 October 2006 amending, for the purposes of adapting to technical progress, the Annex to Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards exemptions for applications of lead and cadmium (notified under document number C(2006) 4790)   (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2006-10-12
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: cadmium, dangerous substance, derogation from EU law, electrical equipment, electronic equipment, lead, marketing

L 283/48

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

14.10.2006

COMMISSION DECISION

of 12 October 2006

amending, for the purposes of adapting to technical progress, the Annex to Directive 2002/95/EC of
the European Parliament and of the Council as regards exemptions for applications of lead and
cadmium

(notified under document number C(2006) 4790)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2006/691/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Having regard to 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 elec-
trical and electronic equipment (1), and in particular Article
5(1)(b) thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

Directive 2002/95/EC requires
evaluate
pursuant to Article 4(1) of that Directive.

hazardous

certain

the Commission to
prohibited

substances

the negative

to outweigh the

Certain materials and components containing lead and
cadmium should be exempted from the prohibition,
since the use of these hazardous substances in those
specific materials and components is still unavoidable,
environmental, health or
or because
safety impacts caused by substitution are
consumer
likely
environmental, health or
consumer safety benefits thereof. The exemptions listed
in the annex to this decision are granted on the basis of
the results of a review process carried out by technical
taking into account available evidence from
experts
studies,
scientific/technical
other
stakeholders
sources. This review concluded that the elimination or
substitution of the substances is still technically or scien-
tifically impracticable.

and

substances

hazardous
electronic
equipment, given that the use of those substances in
such applications will become avoidable.

electrical

and

in

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

Pursuant to Article 5(1)(c) of Directive 2002/95/EC each
exemption listed in the Annex must be subject to a
review at least every four years or four years after an
item is added to the list.

Directive 2002/95/EC should therefore be amended
accordingly.

Pursuant to Article 5(2) of Directive 2002/95/EC, the
Commission has consulted the relevant parties.

in this Decision are in
The measures provided for
accordance with the opinion of
the Committee esta-
blished by Article 18 of Directive 2006/12/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council (2),

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

The Annex to Directive 2002/95/EC is amended as set out in
the Annex to this Decision.

Article 2

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 12 October 2006.

(3)

Some exemptions
from the prohibition for certain
specific materials or components should be limited in
their scope, in order to achieve a gradual phase-out of

For the Commission

Stavros DIMAS
Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 37, 13.2.2003, p. 19. Directive as

last amended by
Commission Decision 2006/310/EC (OJ L 115, 28.4.2006, p. 38).

(2) OJ L 114, 27.4.2006, p. 9.

14.10.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 283/49

ANNEX

In the Annex to Directive 2002/95/EC the following points 21 to 27 are added:

‘21. Lead and cadmium in printing inks for the application of enamels on borosilicate glass.

22. Lead as impurity in RIG (rare earth iron garnet) Faraday rotators used for fibre optic communications systems.

23. Lead in finishes of fine pitch components other than connectors with a pitch of 0.65 mm or less with NiFe lead
frames and lead in finishes of fine pitch components other than connectors with a pitch of 0.65 mm or less with
copper lead frames.

24. Lead in solders for the soldering to machined through hole discoidal and planar array ceramic multilayer capacitors.

25. Lead oxide in plasma display panels (PDP) and surface conduction electron emitter displays (SED) used in structural
elements; notably in the front and rear glass dielectric layer, the bus electrode, the black stripe, the address electrode,
the barrier ribs, the seal frit and frit ring as well as in print pastes.

26. Lead oxide in the glass envelope of Black Light Blue (BLB) lamps.

27. Lead alloys as solder for transducers used in high-powered (designated to operate for several hours at acoustic power

levels of 125 dB SPL and above) loudspeakers.’