Fellow TechNetters:

Do you know what the European Union Commission's Directorate General (DG) for Environment likes to do with its time?  Naturally, they like to revise the list of substances restricted under the RoHS directive (http://www.umweltbundesamt.at/rohs2).

The Commission's consultants have recently drawn up a prioritized list of additional substances to be reviewed for restriction under RoHS (http://www.umweltbundesamt.at/fileadmin/site/umweltthemen/abfall/ROHS/2nd_Interim_Report.pdf).  Despite efforts by IPC, TBBPA,  estimated to account for more than 90% of all FR-4 flame retardants used today, is now on this list.

Currently, the Commission is reviewing the flame retardant HBCDD. Although HBCDD is not used in printed boards, the review is still important as it likely will serve as a model for future substance assessments, including TBBPA.

While the EU's impact analysis does include costs for resin manufacturers and administrative costs, it assumes that a complete change in the flame retardant and laminate system would have little cost impact on printed board fabricators, contract assemblers and OEM users.

To assist us in preparing comments to this proposal, IPC is seeking input from the industry on how this change in flame retardants and/or laminate system would affect your company, and what steps and associated costs would be required of your company to make this change.

If you would like to provide feedback on this, please do so by sending your response to Fern Abrams of IPC at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> no later than the close of Monday, November 18th.

Thanks for your attention,

John Perry
Technical Project Manager
IPC - Association Connecting Electronics Industries(r)
3000 Lakeside Drive # 309S
Bannockburn, IL 60015-1249 USA
+1 847-597-2818 (tel)
+1 847-615-7105 (fax)
+1 847-615-7100 (Main)
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