Distributors need to show RoHS compliance
By Purchasing Staff -- Purchasing, 11/2/2006 2:15:00 PM
North America distributors should take the same steps as equipment manufacturers to guarantee that components meet the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) law, according to the president of catalog distributor Newark InOne.
RoHS, which took effect July 1, puts the legal responsibility for demonstrating compliance on the producers of finished electrical or electronic devices. Paul Tallentire, president of Chicago-based Newark InOne, says that component distributors should meet the same standards if they are to provide their customers with the assurance they need to meet the legal requirements. Tallentire says that in a number of countries in the EU, the amount of due diligence that a producer has undertaken to avoid putting a non-compliant product on the market will be their defense against any prosecution. In the United Kingdom, due diligence defense requires that a manufacturer prove that it took all "reasonable steps" to meet compliance. "Reasonable steps" has been interpreted by the UK's RoHS enforcement arm, the National Weights and Measure Laboratory, as having a documented and auditable process that shows steps were taken to verify the information that is collected from a manufacturer's suppliers. "We believe North American distributors should adhere to the same standard in order to support their customers," says Tallentire. "We have developed our own 10-step due diligence process to evaluate and validate the information we get from our more than 440 suppliers. Some of the steps include making sure all RoHS compliant parts are physically segregated from non-compliant parts at warehouses and that RoHS data from manufacturers is compared to product datasheets and other sources for accuracy. For all 10 steps, see http://www.newark.com/services/rohs/step4.html.
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