EU WEEE & ROHS Directives

WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) and RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) are two new European Union directives that aim to reduce harmful health and environmental effects associated with the manufacture, use and disposal of electrical and electronic equipment. The directives require companies to collect and recycle such equipment and to restrict the use of certain hazardous substances in its manufacture. EU member countries are currently implementing the directives.

We take our environmental responsibilities seriously, and we are working to comply with these directives. All the instruments we have offered for sale since August 13, 2005 bear the recycling "wheelie bin" symbol, and we are working within member countries to identify recycling options. Our instruments are currently exempt from the RoHS directive because they fall under WEEE Annex IA categories 8 and 9, which pertain to medical devices and monitoring and control instruments. Nevertheless, we are working to bring all of our products into RoHS compliance.

We will continue to monitor the applicability of these EU directives as they affect our instruments, and we will keep you informed, accordingly.

More Information

European Commission web content relating to the WEEE & ROHS Directive

China RoHS Requirements

The People's Republic of China's "Management Methods for Controlling Pollution by Electronic Information Products" (sometimes referred to as "China RoHS"), requires us to mark our covered electronic information products ("EIP") with one of two pollution control logos. Also, where our covered EIP contain restricted substances at levels we determine exceed specified Chinese maximum concentration levels for such substances specified in SJ/T 11363-2006 ("Requirements for Concentration Limits for Certain Hazardous Substances in Electronic Information Products"), we are also required to create a disclosure table listing which of the restricted substances exceeds the maximum concentration levels as determined in SJ/T11363-2006.

Waters understands the environmental concerns of the global community and we are working to comply with all applicable regulations.

The web site of the Chinese Ministry leading the development of China's RoHS requirements, the Ministry of Information Industry, is as follows: http://www.mii.gov.cn

Logos

The purpose of the marking is to assist in determining the restricted substance content, recyclability, and environmental protection use period of our covered products, as required in Chinese law, and does not reflect in any way the safety, quality, or warranty associated with these Waters products.

If you see this logo on our covered products then the product does not contain the six restricted substances for China RoHS (lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl, and polybrominated diphenyl ether (excluding decabromodiphenyl ether)) at levels exceeding the specified maximum concentration limits.

If you see this logo on our covered products, refer to the below disclosure table as this table will indicate which of the restricted substances (lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl, and polybrominated diphenyl ether (excluding decabromodiphenyl ether))  exceed the specified maximum concentration limits and in which of our major subassemblies said restricted substances are present. Special considerations may be required when recycling or otherwise managing such subassemblies at the product's end of life.

Disclosure Tables