Study to assess three exemption requests: exemption l(g) (Annex III) for mercury in single capped compact fluorescent lamps for general lighting purposes and two new exemptions (lead in soldering of certain printed circuit board assembly in gas detectors and lead in solder used to make electrical connections to vacuum boards used in Mass Spectrometers Boards designed to be used periodically under low pressure) in Annex IV to Directive 2011/65/EU - Pack 13

Directive 2011/65/EU (RoHS 2) on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment provides “that EEE placed on the market, including cables and spare parts for its repair, its reuse, updating of its functionalities or upgrading of its capacity, does not contain the substances listed in Annex II” (i.e. lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers). The Commission received the following requests for three exemptions from these restrictions as follows: • Renewal of Ex. 1(g)(Annex III):mercury in single capped compact fluorescent lamps for general lighting purposes • New Ex.: lead in soldering of certain printed circuit board assembly in gas detectors • New Ex.: lead in solder used to make electrical connections to vacuum boards used in Mass Spectrometers Boards designed to be used periodically under low pressure The project consortium provided technical and scientific support for the evaluation of these two requests for exemptions from the RoHS Directive. The requests were evaluated in order to assess whether they were justified according to technical and scientific progress and, in particular, whether the use of a prohibited/restricted substance in the requested cases was allowed in line with the Commission's mandate of the RoHS Directive.