Study to assess eight exemption requests in Annexes III and IV to Directive 2011/65/EU: renewal of exemptions III.41, IV.37, IV.41, and requests for new exemptions for lead and DEHP in certain NRMM engines applications, lead in solder and hexavalent chromium to be used in mass spectrometers, lead in certain thermal cutoff fuses and lead in solders of certain applications used to identify radiation - Pack 14

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 has received requests for eight exemptions from these restrictions as follows: Renewal of Ex. 41 of annex III, for Lead in solders and termination finishes of EE components and finishes of PCBs used in ignition modules and other EE engine control systems, which for technical reasons must be mounted directly on or in the crankcase or cylinder of hand-held combustion engines Renewal of Ex. 37 of annex IV, for Lead in platinized platinum electrodes used for conductivity measurements where at least one of three conditions (a-c) apply; Renewal of Ex. 41 of Annex IV, for "Lead as a thermal stabiliser in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used as base material in amperometric, potentiometric and conductometric electrochemical sensors which are used in in-vitro diagnostic medical devices for the analysis of blood and other body fluids and body gases" New Ex.: Lead in solders of sensors, actuators and ECUs that are used to monitor and control engine systems, including turbochargers and exhaust emission controls of internal combustion engines, used in equipment not intended solely for consumer use; New Ex.: Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate in rubber parts used in engine systems, including exhausts and turbochargers, designed for use in equipment that is not solely designed for consumer use; New Ex.: Lead in thermal cutoff fuses overmolded into solenoid coils used in industrial monitoring and control instruments (Category 9) and EEE falling under Category 11; and New Ex.: Lead in solder and Hexavalent Chromium on parts used to make RF detectors in Mass Spectrometers New Ex.: Lead in solders of alpha spectrometers, pulse-processing electronics, scintillation detectors and spectroscopy systems used in equipment to identify radiation, expiring on 23 July 2024 The project consortium provided technical and scientific support for the evaluation of these eight 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.