Folks,

You are looking in the right direction for the answer to this question.

Wednesday, Steve Andrews of UK DTI visited US DoC HQ and met with
reps of the International Trade Admin. and NIST.  We discussed the
current RoHS efforts in the UK.  Mr. Andrews informed us that the
National Weights and Measures Laboratory is charged with enforcement
in the UK.  As you may know, NWML is privatized now.  They have only
five people assigned to this task at this time.  Early efforts began
with an inquiry letter to 20 companies requesting voluntary
explanations of the companies' compliance procedures.  To date, not
all of the companies have volunteered information.

It appears the UK has found itself to be a leader in RoHS efforts as
compared to some other EU member nations.  As evidence, Andrews told
us that before July 1, the EC requested from each nation the contact
info for their enforcement agencies.  At the end of July, another
request went out.  Apparently not all nations have provided the
info.  Take that any way you want, but one interpretation is that not
all EU member nations have active enforcement agencies yet.

One other thing to think regarding enforcement of RoHS.  This is not
from our meeting with Andrews.  It is just an observation.  The
Greenpeace report on laptops took about six months to create from the
time they purchased the five laptops.  Even then, Greenpeace issued a
report that is missing some things a trained analytical chemist would
require in a report of analysis.  For example, there is no discussion
of the uncertainty estimates for reported test results.  If that time
translates into ~1 month at a well-equipped contract lab to correctly
analyze a complex product and write a credible report, well you do the math.

John Sieber


At 07:46 PM 9/22/2006, you wrote:
>Sounds like they are "swinging the lead" (English term for the rest of you -
>slang term used to describe laziness)
>
>Happy Friday, September 22, 2006
>John
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Leadfree [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Hoi!It's Ron
>Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 4:40 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: [LF] Is RoHS Compliance not Being Aggressively Enforced?--from
>Dr. Ron's Blog
>
>Due to the technical proficiency needed, I do not believe Customs was
>charged with enforcement of the Rohs Directive. If memory serves me
>correctly a private firm would be removing suspected product from
>distribution and conducting the technical testing required to determine
>compliance.
>R.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Harvey Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 5:21 PM
>Subject: [LF] Is RoHS Compliance not Being Aggressively Enforced?--from Dr.
>Ron's Blog
>
>
> > Is RoHS Compliance not Being Aggressively Enforced?
> >
> > September 18th, 2006
> >
> > Folks,
> >
> > July 1, 2006 has come and gone. Most of us expected many problems at the
> > borders of the EU countries Re customs after this date. All appears quiet.
> > I have heard few stories of customs disasters. Since it appeared that <
> > 50% of companies were RoHS compliant, I am wondering what happened. My
> > guess is that the EU is not ready to perform consistent inspections and
> > since there is no paperwork requirement (i.e. the act of placing a product
> > on the market declares its compliance) product is simply flowing in with
> > only spotty checks or testing.
> >
> > Readers, what are you hearing?
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Dr. Ron
> >
> >
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