SMART products fully comply with EU's RoHS directive
Electrical and electronic equipment meets newest environmental standards
CALGARY, ALBERTA --- July 5, 2006 --- SMART Technologies Inc. announces that all of its front-projection SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards and its Sympodium® ID350 and ID370 interactive pen displays fully comply with the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive 2002/95/EC. Taking effect on July 1, 2006, the directive restricts the sale of new electrical or electronic products in the Europe Union (EU) that contain more than a maximum amount of six hazardous materials, particularly lead. The RoHS Directive is related to the EU's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive 2002/96/EC, which establishes goals for collection, recycling and recovery of electronic goods. Similar directives are in development in countries such as Canada, Australia, Korea, Japan, China and parts of the United States (California is set to introduce directives in January 2007).
RoHS is an environmental initiative aimed at restricting the use of hazardous materials in electronics products, thereby reducing potential contamination of landfills which may leech hazardous substances into water supplies. For example, a tin-lead compound is traditionally used in the solder of circuit boards. To make its products more environmentally friendly, SMART has replaced the traditional tin-lead solder with a more expensive tin-silver-copper solder. SMART takes a responsive approach to new environmental directives, and is prepared to meet new standards as they become known and ensure all future SMART products meet RoHS standards.
“SMART supports high standards when it comes to environmental practices,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s president and co-CEO. “As a substantial and growing producer of products with parts covered by the RoHS Directive, we have ensured that we and our suppliers fully comply, not just for products shipping into the EU, but worldwide.”
About RoHS
The RoHS Directive stipulates that all electrical and electronic products sold anywhere in the European Union shall contain lower than maximum concentration levels set for lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. The directive also states that restricted substances within homogenous materials (defined by the European Union as materials that cannot be mechanically disjoined into different materials, e.g. plastic) of compliant products will not exceed the maximum concentration levels allowed.
This directive applies to electronic and electrical equipment that depends on electric or electromagnetic fields to work properly, and also to equipment used for the generation, transfer and measurement of such currents and fields designed for use with a voltage rating not exceeding 1,000 volts for alternating current and 1,500 volts for direct current.
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For more information contact
Public Relations
SMART Technologies Inc.
1207 – 11 Avenue SW, Suite 300
Calgary, AB T3C 0M5
CANADA
Phone +1.403.802.2593
Fax +1.403.228.2500
pr@smarttech.com
Please note that SMART is written in all capital letters.