Jul 01, 2006

ASTM International Committee F40 on Declarable Substances in Materials has recently approved their first standard, F 2576, Terminology Relating to Declarable Substances in Materials. The standard, which will serve as the committee’s lexicon of terms, abbreviations and units, is under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee F40.91 on Terminology. Nine terms are listed in the standard, which will be expanded as needed.
 
Committee F40 was formed in 2005 and addresses issues related to the development of standards for the evaluation of materials and products relative to the regulation of Hazard Substances and similar requirements.
 
Timothy McGrady, chair, Committee F40, encourages participation in future revisions of F 2576, as well as in other standards development activities of Committee F40. “We welcome participation from any interested business sector, from law firms to raw material producers, from laboratories to manufacturers of all kinds,” says McGrady. “We always need participants willing to donate their time and efforts to the development of standards.”
 
One proposed new standard that Committee F40 is working on is WK11200, Test Method for Identification and Quantification of Restricted Substances in Polymeric Materials Using X-Ray Fluouresence (XRF) Spectroscopy. According to task group chair Taco van der Maten, WK11200 will describe an XRF method to identify and quantify the chemical elements pertaining to EU and Chinese legislation for Regulation of Hazardous Substances and Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment.
 
“Manufacturers will be able to use this proposed method to produce compliant products,” says van der Maten. “Recipients and customers will be able to use it to screen their incoming products, thus enabling users to sort materials in pass, fail or further investigation categories.”
 
WK11200 is under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee F40.01 on Test Methods. The subcommittee is actively seeking participation in the development of the proposed standard, particularly from representatives of polymer producing and polymer processing and polymer testing companies.
 
ASTM International standards are available for purchase from Customer Service (phone: 610/832-9585; https://www.astm.org/contact/) or at www.astm.org.

For further technical information on F 2576, contact Timothy McGrady, Serious Science, Cortland, N.Y. (phone: 607/753-9075; tim@seriousscience.com). For further information on WK11200 contact Taco van der Maten, PANalytical B.V., The Netherlands (phone: +31 (0) 546-534372); taco.van.der.maten@panalytical.com). Committee F40 will meet Nov. 15-17, at the November Committee Week in Atlanta, Ga. For membership or meeting details, contact Brynn Iwanowski (phone: 610/832-9740; biwanows@astm.org).

Release #7440