REACH - Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals
REACH is an expansive set of European Union regulations that affects all industries doing business in the EU. It basically puts the responsibility for chemical safety on the manufacturers of those chemicals and brings the EU under one unified set of regulations. An important objective of these regulations is to encourage and in certain situations ensure chemicals of high concern are replaced with less dangerous chemicals or eliminated.

REACH Regulation

Draft recommendation for substances of very high concern (SVHC)
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) on 1/14/09 developed a draft recommendation of substances of very high concern (SVHC) for inclusion in Annex XIV.� There are now seven SVHCs; the most notable was the removal of Cobalt dichloride from the list.� Cobalt dichloride is used in Humidity Indicator Cards, which are used extensively in the electronics industry.� Comments on possible exemptions by interested parties are due by 4/14/09.� Mouser expects these seven SVHCs to be on the final list in June 2009.

ECHA draft recommendations

Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

REACH - Mouser's Position
Mouser Electronics being a distributor of electronic components, supplies, and equipment has a limited role in these new regulations. Although electronic components and supplies can be characterized as articles and substances, Mouser is not considered a manufacturer, importer, downstream user, or registrant under Article 3 of REACH. Mouser has no responsibility to register any of the components or supplies we distribute.

Mouser does have the responsibility to communicate information down the supply chain when provided by the manufacturer per article 33 of the directive. We are currently surveying our suppliers for content of substances of very high concern (SVHC) in products. REACH Compliant at Mouser Electronics will mean that a product and it's packaging does not contain substances of very high concern (SVHC) as identified by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) on 6/30/08. Soon we will be able to indicate REACH Compliance per the above definition on our products.

Many suppliers have been able to complete a survey of suppliers for their SVHC and have issued Certificates. Mouser has started posting links to available certificates or other statements about REACH on each Supplier's page of our website.

Also from Mouser's perspective REACH is similar to RoHS. Mouser globally distributes a very wide selection of products and suppliers. As with RoHS, not all the products we sell will be REACH compliant at one time. For this reason Mouser can not sign a global agreement on REACH Compliance. Customers must take an active role in understanding environmental compliance of product and selecting products accordingly.