Electronics Industry Calls for Federal RoHS Legislation

Leaders in the electronics industry have watched in horror as individual states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada pass legislation similar to RoHS. The problem isn't simply the RoHS-style legislation - most companies are compliant - the problem is the states and provinces are passing individualized bills that would make it impossible to build one product to comply with every law.

"Increasingly and varying state-by-state rules are already causing unnecessary complexity for electronic manufacturers and distributors who must try to track and meet them all," says Paul Tallentire, president of Chicago-based distributor, Newark InOne. "Are we going to wait until we have 50 state laws with 50 flavors before we enact a uniform national standard for our industry?" Newark InOne is taking a poll on its website (newarkinone.com/rohs) to assess industry support for federal legislation that would supersede state law and create a uniform national standard.