Norwegian PoHS

Overview

The proposed Norwegian RoHS is called Prohibition on Certain Hazardous Substances in Consumer Products (PoHS). It has undergone an industry consultation that ended in September 2007 which raised a number of issues. As a result the enactment date has been delayed from the original 1 January 2008. No new date has been released as of 3rd March 2008. The Norwegian Polution Control Authority anticipates that it will be june or july 2008 before thay are able to propose a new date. There is a chance that there may be a change to the substances and changes to the limits as a result of the consultation process.  It is being implemented as an additional chapter in the Norwegian Product Regulatons legislation.

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It restricts 18 substances, with only 2 (Lead and Cadmium) being in common with the generic EU RoHS. It explicitly bans TBBPA in additive use, and HBCD, which are the two brominated flame retardants that are not banned under the RoHS ban on Polybrominated Diphenyl  Ethers (PBDE). Other bans include Bisphenol A, Arsenic, and DEHP which is common PVC plasticiser.

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The definition of consumer equipment, (which equates to the scope) is   "By the term consumer product is meant any product that is intended for consumers or that can reasonably be expected to be used by consumers, in line with the definition in section 2a of the Norwegian Act of 11 June 1976 No. 79 relating to the control of products and consumer services (the Product Control Act)."

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The overall comparison to EU RoHS is that:

1. It is much broader, not confined to Electrical and Electronic Equipment
2. More stringent - MCVs as low as 5ppm
3. More elements and substances - 18 compared to 6

The implications to EEE producers selling into Norway is if you have collected RoHS compliance certificates, you need to re-source all of these from your suppliers certifying that none of the 18 substances are in your components (unless under exemption, again these are different from RoHS exemptions). Companies that have implemented substance level databases such as IPC1752 Material Declaration Wizard will simply need to interrogate their database to find if any component has any of the 18 substances in it.

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For more information please see our Norwegian PoHS Guidance Notes or the documents below.