RoHS (rO haus) -WHAT IS RoHS?

RoHS stands for Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment. It is a European Union Directive for specified products placed on the internal market of the European Union. The Directive restricts the use of the following materials:

Lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).

However, there are ten allowed exemptions. Exemptions that pertain to Cooper Electronic Technologies (CET) product include:

Lead in glass for electronic components and lead in high melting temperature solders.
To obtain the full RoHS Directive, (No. 2002/95/EC), along with the exemptions, go to: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_037/l_03720030213en00190023.pdf

• The substances banned by the RoHS Directive are:
• Lead
• Mercury
• Cadmium
• Hexavalent Chromium
• Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB)
• Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE)

However, in the Annex of the RoHS Directive does make allowances for the "Applications of lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, which are exempted from the requirements of Article 4(1)."