REACh
- RIP 3.8 Guidance on Requirements for Substances in articles
released
The
European Commission has released the
final version of RIP 3.8 - the guidance on requirements for
substances in articles. This is the definitive guidance that
exporters to the EU have been waiting for since the last draft in May
2006 - and released just 5 days before REACh pre-registration of
substances starts.
Unsurprisingly,
after such a long wait there are several major changes.
This
guidance finally gives exporters to the EU some certainty as to the
requirements of REACh says Roland Sommer, MD of RoHS-International.
According
to
Sommer the main changes include the addition of a category for
“substances and preparations in containers”, and
packaging being defined as a separate article in its own right,
distinct from the article that it contains. “The final version
of RIP 3.8 goes into a whole level of detail greater than the
previous version” says Sommer. “It brings much more
clarity into the category definitions with many examples in the
appendices. It also addresses the question of whether the SVHC
threshold values are applied at the homogeneous level or article
level”, adds Sommer”.
Since
the release of
RIP 3.8 on the 26th
May, RoHS-International has updated their highly acclaimed REACh
Guidance Notes for Product Exporters to the EU, to reflect the
changes in RIP3.8. “The 118 pages of highly detailed, small
font of RIP 3.8 can be fairly daunting”, says Sommer. “Our
much briefer RoHS-International Guidance Notes give a higher level
and broader overview of the impact of REACH on product exporters to
the EU, with references to the source information to make it simple
to access the next level of detail.”
Gary
Nevison, Legislation and Environmental Affairs Manager for
electronics
component supplier Farnell says, “The simple, straight forward
guidance notes produced by RoHS International provide invaluable
assistance to product manufacturers in obtaining a basic
understanding of the regulations and how to prepare.”
RoHS-International’s
REACH Guidance Notes for Product Exporters to the EU are available
for download at www.rohs-international.com/reach
and RIP3.8 is available at
http://reach.jrc.it/docs/guidance_document/articles_en.htm
