August 2007

The European Union issued a Directive that covers the Removal of Hazardous Substances. This is known as the RoHS directive. This aims to help make electrical and electronic products easier to recycle by restricting the use of certain hazardous substances during manufacture.

This Directive applies to all equipment manufactured or imported into the EU. It covers items such as household goods, IT and telecomms equipment, consumer equipment, lighting equipment, electric and electronic tools, leisure equipment, plus automatic dispensing equipment. The Directive came into force in Europe from 1 st July 2006 and this affected all electrical and electronic equipment sold after that date.

The directive restricts the use of the following materials:

• Lead and Lead Compounds
• Brominated Flame-Retardants
• Cadmium
• Mercury
• Hexavalent Chromium

Barcrest Group Position:
As an ISO 9001 certified business, Barcrest Group was committed to meeting the requirements of the RoHS Directive. A project team was formed in 2003, when we first became aware of this and we met regularly to make sure our products became compliant. The team’s progress and objective were as follows:

• We started to purchase RoHS compliant components and raw materials in June 2005.
• We ceased the purchase of non-RoHS compliant components and raw materials in early 2006.
• We have obtained Declarations from our suppliers to certify that they are supplying RoHS compliant parts. Where appropriate we also asked them to supply an analysis of the materials involved showing the concentrations of the restricted substances.
• In addition, we support this by having our own analysis carried out on certain high-risk components where there is a strong likelihood of them containing one or more of the restricted substances.
• We are fully compliant within the terms of the RoHS Directive.

You can be assured that all new Barcrest Group products will continue to meet the requirements of this Directive.