REACH, RoHS and Conflict Minerals: Potential Impacts on the Metals Industry

Apr 29, 2015 | ASTM
Anaheim, California
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This workshop will focus on REACH, RoHS and Conflict Minerals as they affect the copper industry. These developments could have a major impact upon the metals industry as health and social legislation expands its scope within industry in general. In order to protect human health and safety, REACH requires industry to assume the burden of proof for the safety and risks of identified substances. While currently there are 155 compounds targeted as "Very High Concern," it is unknown how this list might potentially grow and expand in the future. RoHS, like REACH, is focused upon health and safety. It particularly targets six substances: Pb, Hg, Cd Cr6+, PBB and PBDE. Currently, the exemption for brass alloys containing some of these metals under RoHS is up for renewal in 2016. Finally, the Conflict Minerals provisions that were coded into law as a part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, bring the industrial marketplace more focused upon social and societal responsibility, particularly with the tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold ores that are sometimes utilized to fund violence in Africa. This act focuses upon these compounds originating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its 9 adjoining nations. It expands upon the "blood diamonds" addressed by the UN General Assembly, but brings into the metals industry a requirement for tracking of the supply chain for these metals to assure their original source. This workshop will provide background on each of the regulations, provide an update on their current status and indicate current thinking on future expansions.

Presenter: Chuck Blanton, Mueller Industries, Inc.

A Workshop on REACH, RoHS and Conflict Minerals: Potential Impacts on the Metals Industry will be held Wednesday, April 29, 2015 from 8:30 am to 9:30 am. Sponsored by ASTM Committee B05 on Copper and Copper Alloys, the workshop will be held at the Marriott Anaheim in Anaheim, CA, in conjunction with the April standards development meetings of the committee.

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