article on REACH enforcement - all EU suppliers are now required to comply

REACH Now a Reality
Written by Administrator
Friday, 05 June 2009
BRUSSELS -- As of June 1, all EU suppliers are now required to comply with a raft of substance restrictions under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation.


The substance restrictions apply every time an article is supplied (including components, sub-assemblies and finished equipment) and enforcement action can be taken at any point in the supply chain. The substance restrictions also apply to distributors that resell components and sub-assemblies, and retailers that resell finished equipment.


The 53 substance restrictions are detailed in Annex XVII of the REACH Regulation (as amended) and cover a range of applications. In addition to substances already restricted under the RoHS Directive, there are 19 additional REACH substance restrictions that can be relevant to electrical and electronics equipment and hardware.


More substances are expected be added to the list by the European Chemicals Agency and EU Member States. However, the list of REACH restricted substances is expected to develop more slowly than the REACH Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern, which may grow by up to 25 substances per year according to the ECA. Substances on the Candidate List require declaration if the component, sub-assembly or finished equipment contains more than 0.1% w/w of that substance.


REACH enforcement is carried out through Member State regulations and is coordinated across Europe by the ECHA Forum for Exchange for Information on Enforcement. In France, for example, companies that do not comply with REACH restrictions face a maximum prison sentence of two years or a maximum fine of €75,000. In the UK, noncompliant companies face a maximum penalty on conviction on indictment of a fine (unlimited) or imprisonment not exceeding two years, or both.

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TPP - NEW USER FRIENDLY FEATURES!


REACH/SVHC and Halogen-free flaggingThis new feature identifies the 15 named Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) under the European Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of Chemicals Reach legislation. Additionally, Halogen-free products will be flagged and tracked for reporting purposes. Users will be able to submit any board-level electronic component through Total Parts Plus' web application and generate the named material, weights and measures required for REACH reporting.

PCN daily text file alertsUsers may now elect to receive a daily text notification on any new PCNs and/or PDNs that are posted. An expansion of the current PCN Alert configuration, the daily text option provides additional preferences for receiving alerts beyond exact matches and alternates. For example, users may elect to include wildcard matches.
New Environmental ReportIn response to the increased request to combine obsolescence data with RoHS compliance information, TPP has added the “RefPN Flag/Process Information” report to the Material Content Analysis dropdown. The new environmental report includes part status, reference PN availability and end-of-life information fields to the RoHS compliance and lead finish data.

Part Alias Technology™A high performance analysis, this tool cleanses and identifies part number matches for unknown parts. A new enhancement to the Parts Plus application eliminates incomplete reporting and analysis due to these unknowns. The user-friendly interface ensures that all AVL/BOM parts are recognized for attributes such as obsolescence status, lifecycle, PCN's, secondary sources, RoHS compliance status and declaration information.