Study to assess two RoHS exemption requests: #1 for lead in bearings and bushes of professional-use non-road equipment engines; #2 for lead in solders used to construct and connect to Peltier thermal cyclers used for in-vitro diagnostic analysers that use polymerase chain reaction - Pack 11

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 requests for two exemptions from these restrictions as follows: "lead in solders used to construct and connect to Peltier thermal cyclers used for in-vitro diagnostic analysers that use polymerase chain reaction (for in-vitro diagnostic medical devices, Annex IV)." "lead in bearings and bushes of professional-use non-road equipment engines (Annex III)." 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.