LONDON -- Electronics companies taking a passive approach to REACH Article 33 obligations may be risking compliance.

REACH Article 33 (1) requires contract manufacturers and distributors that supply an article that contains more than 0.1% weight by weight (w/w) of any Candidate List Substance of Very High Concern to provide industrial customers with “sufficient information, available to the supplier, to allow safe use of the article including, as a minimum, the name of that substance.”

Some contract manufacturers and distributors have stated stating that this wording permits a passive approach to compliance, for example. However, says Environ, the European Chemicals Agency's Guidance on Requirements for Substances in Articles states that obtaining standardized information from suppliers, and requesting non-standardized information up the supply chain, interprets availability of information in the supply chain as: “In many cases either no or insufficient information will be supplied to article producers, importers and other suppliers to check if the requirements of Article 7 and 33 apply to them and to implement the necessary steps for achieving compliance. In these cases, active requests for information on the identity of substances and on the concentrations/amounts contained in preparations or articles will need to be made. It is acknowledged that supply chains are complex and that confidentiality or supply contracts may to a large extent hinder communication. Furthermore, inquiring substance identities and/or contents will need time and resources.”

Adopting a passive approach also represents compliance and business risks, Environ, a provider of regulatory compliance software, says.

Under REACH, if a contract manufacturer or distributor provides no information on these high concern substances to its industrial customers, this is equivalent to stating that the products do not contain >0.1% w/w of any of these substances, Environ assert. To avoid this exposure, many contract manufacturers and distributors are stating that this information is not available to them. However, if they do then supply a component containing one of these high concern substances, they would be required to defend why this information was not available.

If the contract manufacturer or distributor can show that they followed the ECHA Guidance and requested this information from their suppliers, but it was not provided, then this provides an adequate defense, says Environ. However, a lack of effort to actively survey suppliers is not a defense, the firm says.