EU - RoHS Exemptions Evaluation: Pack 19

​Under Framework Contract no. ENV.A.2/FRA/2015/0008 of 27/03/2015, a consortium led by Oeko-Institut was requested by DG Environment of the European Commission to provide technical and scientific support for the evaluation of exemption requests under the RoHS 2 regime. The work has been undertaken by the Oeko-Institut and Fraunhofer Institute IZM, and has been peer reviewed by the two institutes.

The scope of the project covers the evaluation of one request for exemption renewal, listed in Annex IV, 12 under the current exemption wording as follows:

“Lead and cadmium in metallic bonds creating superconducting magnetic circuits in MRI, SQUID, NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) or FTMS (Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometer) detectors. Expires on 30 June 2021.” 

This request was submitted by Japan Superconductor Technology, Inc. (JASTEC). The European Commission has received a further application for RoHS exemption 12 of Annex IV by Megin Oy and has requested to consider the application as a contribution to the evaluation.

Following the stakeholder consultations, an in-depth evaluation of the exemption began. The request was evaluated according to the relevant criteria laid down in Article 5 (1) of the RoHS 2 Directive​ and the recommendation is as follows:

"Lead in metallic bonds creating superconducting electric circuits in SQUID detectors."

In case exemption 11 is not renewed, or if the scope of exemption 11 will not be changed to include NMR and MRI:

"Lead in metallic bonds creating superconducting electric circuits in MRI and NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), and in SQUID detectors."

Expiry date: 30 June 2028