Mike Kirschner is a product environmental compliance and performance expert who provides advice and expertise to manufacturers in a variety of industries. His primary areas of focus include EU RoHS, the impact of EU's REACH regulation on article manufacturers, California’s Safer Consumer Products regulation, and performance standards like IEEE-1680.x for electronics. Mike helps manufacturers define, implement and troubleshoot internal management systems that result in compliant products, and assesses and monitors environmental regulations around the world on their behalf. He contributed two chapters to the Governance, Risk, and Compliance Handbook, published by Wiley in 2008, and is featured in the critically acclaimed book, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power. Mike was an original member of the California EPA Department of Toxic Substance Control's Green Ribbon Science Panel and in 2014 was appointed to the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute® Governing Board. Mike founded product lifecycle and environmental consultancy Design Chain Associates, LLC (DCA), where he serves as president. Before founding DCA in 2001, Mike spent 20 years in engineering and engineering management roles within the electronics industry with manufacturers including Intel and Compaq. He holds a BS in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
When people talk about “RoHS” they tend to mean the European Union’s “Restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment” Directive, 2011/65/EU. The fact is that there are an increasing number of RoHS-like regulations in different markets around the world. Each one has a different regulatory environment and agenda that…
This summer, at the end of July, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) proposed a draft “catalog” of “Electrical and Electronic Products” (EEPs) that would be subject to substance restrictions under the current “China RoHS 2” regulation (AKA Management Methods for the Restriction of the Use of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic…
Despite months of trying to get clarifying information on the new United Arab Emirates (UAE) RoHS regulation and failing, I held a webinar – UAE RoHS Legislation: Regulatory Update – with Compliance & Risks in July to discuss the key issues with the new regulation. Thanks to Peter Merguerian of Go Global Compliance, I finally was…
VI continue to get questions on a near-daily basis asking whether one specific EU RoHS exemption or another has been renewed or will be expiring on July 21, 2016. Today it was 7(c)-1. One exemption that will expire on July 21, 2016 that some electronics manufacturers need to be aware of is 7(b): Lead in…
On August 3, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) issued a draft regulation, clearly based on the current European Union RoHS Directive, 2011/65/EU, for comment to the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO TBT) Committee. The regulation proposes to cover the same 11 categories of Electrical and Electronic Equipment, provides the same scope exclusions,…
In conjunction with the 2015 Québec- France trade mission headed by Québec Premier Philippe Couillard, Saint-Hubert-based Varitron Technologies, Québec City-based EMM Groupe and French firm Sterela have signed a memorandum of understanding for joint North American market development of technologies and products for smart cities. Under this agreement, Varitron Technologies will manufacture and assemble components, EEM Groupe will manage…
I have been helping an increasing number of clients track and understand their options regarding the expiration of all RoHS Directive (2011/65/EU) Annex III exemptions for products in all RoHS categories—except 8 and 9—as of July 21, 2016 (see Article 5, paragraph 2). A few European Union-based industry associations are managing working groups (some of…