Mercury is covered under RoHS but is not a substance of very high concern (SVHC) ?

T

tekno9000

#1
#1
The EU had issued a directive on the restriction of the use of Mercury (Hg) in electrical and electronic equipment (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive or RoHS).

However, mercury is not listed as a substance of very high concern (SVHC) under the REACH Regulation. The SVHC list is published by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

Can someone please explain why?

Thanks.
 
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D

Dr. L. Ramakrishnan

Moderator
#2
#2
Re: Mercury is covered under RoHS but is not a substance of very high concern (SVHC)

Hi

I don't have any direct experience with REACH or SVHC; I have just gone through the Wikepedia entry on SVHC. It appears from the following quote "SVHCs are substances for which the current restrictions on use (where these exist) might be insufficient" from Wikepedia that as far as RoHS is sufficient to restrict the use of mercury, there is no need for including it in the SVHC list.

With kind regards,

Ramakrishnan
 
AnaMariaVR2

AnaMariaVR2

Trusted Information Resource
#3
#3
Re: Mercury is covered under RoHS but is not a substance of very high concern (SVHC)

You are right, mercury is not on the SVHC list:
http://echa.europa.eu/candidate-list-table

I don't know why is not SVHC listed & that is a very good question.
Maybe someone here can expand more on this.
Could it be a case of being in scope / out of scope for this particular list? Or maybe based on the nature of how is used, it is exempt from the SVHC but it is listed in a separate regulated fashion somewhere else. This is my speculation. I'm curious to hear this reason as well.

These are 2 interesting reports on mercury even though it does not answer your posted question:
-MERCURY FLOWS IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD: THE IMPACT OF DECOMMISSIONED CHLOR-ALKALI PLANTS
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/mercury/pdf/report.pdf

-MERCURY FLOWS AND SAFE STORAGE OF SURPLUS MERCURY
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/mercury/pdf/hg_flows_safe_storage.pdf
​
Maybe this sheds some light:
DIRECTIVE 2011/65/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 8 June 2011 on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:174:0088:0110:en:pDF

Export-ban of mercury and mercury compounds from the EU by 2011
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-PRESS&reference=20080516BRI29011&secondRef=ITEM-008-EN&format=XML&language=EN

If Mercury Pollution Knows No Borders, Neither Can Its Solution
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/business/energy-environment/if-mercury-pollution-knows-no-borders-neither-can-its-solution.html?_r=0

 
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