[tinwhiskers] Re: Revisiting the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976: H.R. 2420
- From: "White, Robert" <Robert.White@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: 'Bob Landman' <rlandman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 08:19:09 -0700
Hi Bob,
Thanks for all the information you have sent. I also sent a copy of the bill to
Circuit Net and they posted the story the following day. We should send this
out to any other trade mags that have not carried it yet so we build momentum.
As far as I am concerned this bill at the minimum should have the exact same
exemptions as EU RoHS. But I understand NEMA's stance to have one bill that
eliminates the possibility of every state doing there own thing leading to a
hodgepodge of legislation that is impossible to meet.
On the Pb free issue, remember that the Pb free issue is not so much one of the
environmental effect directly, so much as it is to be able to safely recycle
products. A lot of people fail to realize that the only reason EU RoHS existed
was to allow the EU WEEE Directive to work effectively and inexpensively
without requiring stringent worker safety precautions for recyclers. It was
also so that one major form of energy recovery could be used, burning
electronic waste and generating electricity.
Best Regards,
Bob White
Director of Safety and Environmental Compliance
Power-One, Inc.
Tel: +1 805 384-5391
Fax: +1 805 987-3781
robert.white@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: tinwhiskers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:tinwhiskers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Landman
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 4:09 PM
To: tin whiskers forum; Leadfree@xxxxxxx
Subject: [tinwhiskers] Revisiting the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976:
H.R. 2420
From Bob Landman/H&L Instruments
(reposting to the IPC list with some additional info and also posting to the
ROHSPUSHBACK forum)
Are you aware of a new bill in Congress (H.R. 2420). It will ban lead in
solder except for a few areas of industry. If your product is not listed here,
it is NO LONGER EXEMPT if this bill becomes law.
If you are aware of the bill, what is your company's position? Has the company
withdrawn support of NEMA?
Is your company willing to lobby against this bill unless it is changed?
NEMA has sponsered the bill which means that ALL the companies listed here
(some of them taking the RoHS exemption, just slit their own throats.
http://www.nema.org/mfgs/
This is their call to action http://www.nema.org/gov/env_conscious_design/
Environmental Stewardship
NEMA > Policy Issues > Environmental Stewardship
NEMA Environmental Stewardship Initiative
In 2006, the electroindustry through NEMA announced a voluntary, industry-wide
commitment known as the NEMA "Call to Action" to achieve the elimination or
reduction of six substances (lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium,
polybrominated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers) in many NEMA
member products by July 2010 on a global basis. This commitment reflects
standards originally enacted in European markets under the European Union's
Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, but NEMA members chose to
extend their compliance with the standard to all markets in which
electroindustry products are sold. The "Call to Action" initiative also
includes a second phase to identify further product stewardship measures, such
as additional hazardous materials reductions and recycling programs. The goal
is to have those additional initiatives in place by July 2014.
H.R. 2420, Environmental Design of Electrical Equipment Act ("EEDE Act")
With the input of the electroindustry and NEMA members, legislation was drafted
to codify the industry's 2010 commitment for the initial RoHS substances into
U.S. federal law. After significant work and outreach to Capitol Hill, H.R.
2420, the Environmental Design of Electrical Equipment Act of 2009 (the "EDEE
Act"), was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman
Michael Burgess (R-TX) on May 14, 2009. To urge your Representative to
cosponsor H.R. 2420, please click here. NEMA continues to work to secure the
introduction of a companion bill in the U.S. Senate.
* H.R. 2420, the Environmental Design of Electrical Equipment Act of 2009
("EDEE Act")
* Issue Brief on the Environmental Design of Electrical Equipment Act of
2009 (H.R. 2420)
* White Paper on the Environmental Design of Electrical Equipment Act of
2009 (H.R. 2420)
=================
I found this:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1505
which explains what the driving force is for the bill.
Revisiting the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 Hearings - Subcommittee on
Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection February 26, 2009
The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection held a hearing
titled, 'Revisiting the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976' at 10:00 a.m. on
Thursday, February 26, 2009, in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing
addressed critical gaps in the statute and explore how these gaps hinder
effective chemical safety policy in the United States.
The following witnesses were invited to testify:
* John Stephenson, Director, Natural Resources and the Environment,
Government Accountability Office
* J. Clarence Davies, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future (Former EPA
Assistant Administrator for Policy in the George H.W. Bush Administration)
* Maureen Swanson, Healthy Children Project Coordinator, Learning
Disabilities Association of America
* Cecil Corbin-Mark, Deputy Director/Director for Policy Initiatives, WE
ACT For Environmental Justice (West Harlem Environmental Action)
* Michael Wright, Director of Health and Safety, United Steelworkers
* Richard Denison, Senior Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund
* Kathy Gerwig, Vice President, Workplace Safety and Environmental
Stewardship Officer, Kaiser Permanente
* Cal Dooley, President and CEO, American Chemistry Council
* V.M. DeLisi, President, Fanwood Chemical, Inc., Chairman, International
Affairs Committee, Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association
* Charles T. Drevna, President, National Petrochemical & Refiners
Association
This explains why there is this new bill in Congress: H.R. 2420 which makes
the use of lead in solder illegal except in very few specific areas.
I got the text of the bill from this link
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-2420
NOTE: You can sign up to track the bill as it winds through Congress (no
charge) at the above link.
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2420
To amend the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 to ensure a uniform Federal
scheme of regulation of restrictions in the use of certain substances in
electrical products and equipment in interstate and foreign commerce, and for
other purposes.
SEC. 4. UNIFORM FEDERAL SCHEME OF REGULATION.
(a) Section 6 of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (15 U.S.C. 2605) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
'(f) Certain Applications-
'(1) ELECTROINDUSTRY PRODUCTS- As used in subsection (e), the term
'electroindustry product' means any product or equipment that is directly used
to facilitate the transmission, distribution, or control of electricity, or
that uses electrical power for arc welding, lighting, signaling protection and
communication, or medical imaging, or electrical motors and generators.
'(2) NATIONAL STANDARDS- Except for those electroindustry products and product
categories set forth in paragraph (3), no electroindustry product shall be
manufactured after July 1, 2010, that contains a concentration value greater
than 0.1 percent by weight of lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium,
polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) as
measured in any homogeneous material contained in the electroindustry product,
or a concentration value greater than 0.01 percent of cadmium as measured in
any homogeneous material contained in the electroindustry product. For purposes
of this section, 'homogeneous material' means a material of uniform composition
throughout that cannot be mechanically disjointed into different materials.
'(3) ELECTROINDUSTRY PRODUCTS AND PRODUCT CATEGORIES- The processing and/or use
of the specified chemical substances in any of the following electroindustry
products and equipment shall not be subject to any restriction or requirement
that is designed to protect against a risk of injury to health or the
environment, and shall in no manner be restricted, by the States or any
political subdivision of a State in accordance with section 2617(c)(1)(B):
'(A) Lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, and
polybrominated diphenyl ethers contained in--
'(i) products or equipment designed for use with a voltage rating of 300 volts
or above;
'(ii) products or equipment used in fixed installations; [Struck out->][ For
purposes of this subsection, 'fixed installation' means a combination of
equipment, systems, finished products and/or components, not including lighting
equipment that encompasses lighting fixtures and lamps, assembled and/or
erected by an assembler/installer at a given place to operate together in an
expected environment to perform a specific task, but not intended to be placed
in commerce as a single functional or commercial unit ][<-Struck out] ;
'(iii) signaling protection and communication systems and products, including
healthcare communications and emergency call systems;
'(iv) surface transportation information management and control systems,
subsystems, equipment, components, and services, including equipment used to
design, install, operate, and maintain such systems;
'(v) medical diagnostic imaging and therapy equipment and devices,
communications and emergency call systems and products, modular walls,
consoles, systems, products, panels, meters, and monitors used in healthcare
facilities;
'(vi) shunt capacitors and series capacitors;
'(vii) electro-mechanical and solid-state equipment and systems for
measurement, display recording, processing, and telemetry for electricity
metering and associated information;
'(viii) distribution and power transformers and special purpose transformers;
'(ix) equipment used for mounting or testing watt-hour or demand meters such as
sockets, boxes, enclosures, test blocks, test tables, and test kits;
'(x) high voltage fuses, high current connectors, power circuit breakers,
switchgear assemblies, surge arrestors, and insulating equipment, products, and
hardware;
'(xi) steam turbine generators and units;
'(xii) electrical wire and cable products and accessories, not including
fixture wires, appliance wires, and flexible cords as so classified by the
National Electrical Code, by Underwriters Laboratories, Inc., or by the
Canadian Standards Association;
'(xiii) electrical conduit;
'(xiv) high intensity discharge lamps;
'(xv) arc welding and plasma cutting equipment designed for industrial or
professional use; or
'(xvi) arc welding and cutting equipment driven by mechanical means, e.g., a
gasoline or diesel engine.
'(B) Lead when used or contained in--
'(i) steel alloys containing up to 0.35 percent lead by weight, aluminum alloys
containing up to 0.4 percent lead by weight and copper alloys containing up to
4 percent lead by weight;
'(ii) solders with high melting temperatures, including lead-based alloys
containing 85 percent or more lead by weight, and solders for--
'(I) die mounting in Light Emitting Diode applications;
'(II) the electrical connection within integrated-circuit flip-chip packages;
'(III) machined through-hole discoidal and planar array ceramic multilayer
capacitors; and
'(IV) printed circuit board assemblies and point-to-point soldered assemblies,
up to 40 percent lead by weight, and when used in transmission, distribution,
power supply, or control devices designed to be installed in electrical outlet
boxes and/or switch boxes, in emergency lighting equipment, in trip units in
circuit breakers, or in sensors used for lighting control;
'(iii) glass used in plasma display panels or surface conduction electron
emitter displays or for flat fluorescent lamps in liquid crystal displays, or
in incandescent lamps;
'(iv) finishes of fine-pitch components other than connectors with a pitch of
0.65 millimeters or less with nickel-iron lead frames or copper-lead frames;
'(v) coatings not exceeding 0.5 percent by weight for tin babbitt alloy coated
sleeve bearings;
'(vi) gateway hardware between lighting controls protocols and building
management protocols;
'(vii) red ink used in exit signs not exceeding 0.005 milligrams per lens;
'(viii) fluorescent lamps;
'(ix) electrical connector coatings; or
'(x) lead-bronze bearing shells and bushes.
'(C) Cadmium and its compounds when used or contained in--
'(i) electrical contacts, cadmium plating and switch contacts, including those
used in thermal protectors in lighting ballasts, and luminaires containing such
ballasts; or
'(ii) cadmium-copper alloys for wire conductors.
'(D) Hexavalent chromium when used or contained in electrical connectors,
corrosion-prevention coatings for fasteners and metals in emergency lighting
equipment or electromagnetic interference shielding, and noncurrent carrying
electrical devices.
'(E) Mercury when used or contained in--
'(i) straight fluorescent lamps for general purposes, but not exceeding 10
milligrams in halophosphate lamps, 5 milligrams in triphosphate lamps with a
normal lifetime, and 8 milligrams in triphosphate lamps with a long lifetime;
'(ii) straight fluorescent lamps for special purposes;
'(iii) compact fluorescent lamps equal to or greater than 9 inches;
'(iv) compact fluorescent lamps less than 25 watts, not exceeding 5 milligrams
per lamp;
'(v) compact fluorescent lamps equal to or greater than 25 watts, not exceeding
6 milligrams per lamp;
'(vi) high output/very high output linear fluorescent lamps greater than 32
millimeters in diameter;
'(vii) preheat linear fluorescent lamps; or
'(viii) luminaires when containing any mercury-added lamps identified under
[Struck out->][ subsection (f)(3)(E)(i)-(vii) ][<-Struck out] .
'(F) Any processing and/or use of a specified chemical substance in an
electroindustry product other than those identified in this subsection as the
Administrator may establish by rule.'.
(b) Section 18 of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (15 U.S.C. 2617) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
'(c) Preemption- (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, no
State or political subdivision of a State may, after the effective date of this
Act, adopt or continue in effect any requirement that is designed to protect
against a risk of injury to health or the environment--
'(A) for any electroindustry product as defined in section 2605(f)(1) that is
inconsistent with or more stringent than the national standards set forth in
section 2605(f)(2); or
'(B) that is applicable to the processing and/or use of the specified chemical
substances in any of the electroindustry products or electroindustry product
categories set forth in section 2605(f)(3).
'(2) Upon application of a State or political subdivision of a State, the
Administrator may, by rule, exempt from section 2605(f)(3), under such
conditions as may be prescribed in such rule, a requirement of such State or
political subdivision designed to protect against an unreasonable risk of
injury to health or the environment associated with any of the uses of any
chemical substance, mixture, or article containing such chemical substance or
mixture specified in section 2605(f)(3) if--
'(A) compliance with the requirement would not cause the processing,
distribution in commerce, or use of the substance, mixture, or article to be in
violation of the Act; and
'(B) the State or political subdivision requirement does not, through
difficulties in manufacturing, marketing, distribution, or other factors,
unduly burden interstate commerce, or does not lessen the reliability of an
electrical grid or of any product or system which is the subject of any such
requirement of a State or political subdivision of a State.
'(3) Compliance with the national standards set forth in section 2605(f)(2) may
be demonstrated based on any appropriate method for a particular
electroindustry product, including without limitation, certifications of
compliance by product manufacturers or testing performed in accordance with the
guidelines promulgated by the Administrator under this subsection. The
Administrator shall, within one year from the effective date of this Act,
promulgate guidelines establishing test procedures for determining the
concentration of lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, polybrominated
biphenyls (PBB) and/or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) contained in an
electroindustry product.'.
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