BASEC offers help on hazardous substances

New certification scheme introduced by the British Approvals Service for Cables to help manufacturers and users of wire and cable meet new EC legislation coming into effect on hazardous substances.

The RoHS Directive - Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances - has implications for OEM manufacturers, component and material suppliers and the distribution chain for electrical and electronic equipment.

There are eight broad categories of product including household appliances, IT and telecommunications equipment, consumer equipment, lighting equipment, electrical and electronic tools, toys, leisure and sports equipment.

Its aim is simple - to restrict the use of six substances within new electrical and electronic equipment to help prevent them entering the environment in the future.

Introduced from 1st July, RoHS prohibits new electrical and electronic equipment in the marketplace containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants.

A number of these have traditionally been used as raw materials in the manufacture of cable, in particular PVC.

Dr Jeremy Hodge, BASEC Chief Executive, said: "For some time there have been growing concerns from electrical and electronic product manufacturers over the impact of this legislation.

"We at BASEC anticipated these developments and some years ago introduced the first Eco-Green Cable certification scheme for wire and cable product marking.

"Now that the Directive has been published and implemented we have a much clearer picture of the regulator's requirements.

However, the devil is in the considerable detail and the large number of exemptions, interpretations of the rules and national implementation".

To address this, BASEC has introduced a new option, the Eco-Green Management Scheme, designed as an add-on to existing BASEC ISO 9001 or BA 2250 certification.

It is aimed at the procurement, production and record management aspects of cable manufacture.

Dr Hodge added: "The scheme allows manufacturers to demonstrate that they have effective systems in place to verify the absence of the designated hazardous substances from their products.

It consequently makes a valuable contribution to ensuring compliance with RoHS, providing assurance for their customers.

"Taking practical and pragmatic steps on this issue is a way of demonstrating commitment to environmental issues and customer service.".

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