Study to assess two exemption requests in Annexes III and IV to Directive 2011/65/EU: renewal of exemption IV.42, and request for a new exemption for lead and hexavalent chromium compounds in electric and electronic initiators of explosives for civil (professional) us

Directive 2011/65/EU on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS 2) provides that "electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market, including cables and spare parts for its repair, reuse, functional upgrading or performance enhancement, shall not contain any of the substances listed in Annex II (e.g. lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers)". The Commission has received requests to grant two exemptions from the following restrictions: - a request to extend the exemption 42 in Annex IV for medical devices and monitoring and control devices relating to mercury in rotating connectors used in intravascular ultrasound imaging systems capable of high operating frequency (> 50 MHz) modes of operation. - Lead and chromium VI in electrical and electronic initiators of civil explosives for professional use. The project consortium provided technical and scientific support for the evaluation of these two requests for exemption from the RoHS Directive. The applications were evaluated to determine whether they were justified in the light of technical and scientific progress and, in particular, whether the use of a prohibited substance or a substance subject to restrictions was allowed in the respective applications in accordance with the mandate given to the Commission under the RoHS Directive.