RoHS Directive - Restriction of Hazardous Substances

Some products say that they are RoHS compliant. What is RoHS?
The RoHS Directive stands for "the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment".  This Directive will ban the placing on the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants from 1 July 2006.
Manufacturers will need to understand the requirements of the RoHS Directive to ensure that their products, and their components, comply.
When does RoHS come into force?
The RoHS Directive and the UK RoHS regulations come into force on 1 July 2006. The RoHS Directive is an Article 95 single market directive and we are not aware of any communications or plans at the pan European level to postpone the coming into force date.