Fifteen chemicals have been listed as substances of very high concern on the European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) website. According to Article 33 of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) legislation, suppliers of any item containing these substances are obliged to provide the recipient with sufficient information to ensure its safe use.
The EU and ECHA are now looking to extend this list, which means companies along the entire supply chain need to be aware of the candidate list.
In support of this aim, German association of component distributors, the FBDi, is calling for information transparency from all stakeholders in the supply chain. It has proposed a specific solution geared to the electronics industry, using the XML format. The Association would provide a document containing the candidate list as freeware on its website. Suppliers can then download the file, enter the product data or send the file to their customers, enabling all stakeholders to ascertain any candidate list substances that may be contained in the products as quickly as possible.
director of the FBDi, Wolfram Ziehfuss, explained: A joint information exchange format, which allows distributors, manufacturers and customers to work on a system-wide basis is a giant leap forwards. Manufacturers now have until the start of the new year to decide whether or not they wish to work with the format presented.