Tim Jensen

As more individual halogenated compounds become restricted, it becomes more and more likely that electronics companies will just restrict ALL halogenated compounds.  The reason is that it is very costly to test for specific compounds but there are low cost tests to look at the elemental level (i.e. look for Cl and Br).

Recently, the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) has recommended that hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) be included in Annex XIV of the REACH legislation.  Once a material is placed in Annex XIV, it will be banned from the European Union within 3.5 - 4 years.  It is likely that HBCDD will also be added to the next revision of the RoHS Directive.