[senit] Danas banned in Europe

From: Judith Stansfield <stass at onyxnet.co.uk>

Seems the Dana has fell foul of the European Union (EU) directive
2002/95/EC, known as the "Restrictions on the use of Hazardous Substances in
electronic equipment" (or RoHS), bans the sale 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. This law requires
manufacturers to find new materials and develop new engineering processes
for the creation of common electronic equipment, including network adapters.

This could mean something as simple as the lead content of the solder used
on the motherboard.

A lot of companies have been caught up by this directive, Apple Computers
has had to withdraw the iSight, AirPort Base Station (modem), AirPort Base
Station (PoE), iPod shuffle battery pack, and the eMac because of it and
Pentax cameras take out a lot of their range because of it, as examples.

So no new Danas can be sold in Europe once existing stocks have gone.  So
there may well be suppliers out there with stock left.  We will be able to
continue to supply the VoiceCard and Write:OutloudToGo for people to fit to
Danas they already have.  I don't think there are any restrictions on
selling existing Danas second hand.

Jamie

> From: Judith Stansfield <stass at onyxnet.co.uk>
> Reply-To: <senit at lists.becta.org.uk>
> Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:31:05 -0000
> To: <senit at lists.becta.org.uk>
> Subject: RE: [senit] Danas banned in Europe
> 
> I got the information from Jamie Munro at Don Johnston
> Cheers
> Judith
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Judith Stansfield
> Farm Cottage, 24 East Road, Melsonby,Richmond DL10 5NF
> http://stass.web.onyxnet.co.uk
> 01325 718139   07990572365
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
> [mailto:senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of David Banes
> Sent: 09 November 2007 20:16
> To: senit at lists.becta.org.uk
> Subject: RE: [senit] Danas banned in Europe
> 
> 
> Judith 
> 
> Im disappointed that the Dana is no longer available - but with the best
> will I think that we should understand why the a license has been
> withdrawn - before I got involved in a debate Id like to know a little
> more about the reasons why it has been withdrawn and which standards are
> not being met 
> 
> Do you know of a link to more about the story ?
> 
> David Banes
> Director of Development
> 
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
> [mailto:senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Judith Stansfield
> Sent: 09 November 2007 19:49
> To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk.; SENIT (SENIT)
> Subject: [senit] Danas banned in Europe
> 
> 
> I don't know whether you are aware that it is now illegal to buy an
> Alphsmart Dana in the UK, as all the old stock has been sold. Someone in
> the EC in its PC-dom has decided that part of the production process
> does not measure up, so their sale is banned in  Europe - even though
> they are still OK to be sold in North America and most other parts of
> the world, it is not worth Alphasmarts while to change their production
> run for one area. The Dana, especially with the Don Johnston soundcard
> adaptation and inclusion of Write Outloud provided a really useful,
> robust, portable writing aid that provided a talking wordprocessor, that
> a dyslexic child could easily carry around school to use.  It is little
> short of a scandal, let alone an infringement of personal choice, that
> our children with SEN  are to be denied their use . In Dyslexia
> Awareness Week, I shall be using www.writetothem.com to raise this with
> my MP and MEP and hope that lots of you will spend a few minutes to do
> this as well Cheers Judith ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Judith Stansfield
> SEN ICT Consultant
> BDANTC (Associate member)
> Farm Cottage, 24 East Road, Melsonby,Richmond DL10 5NF
> http://stass.web.onyxnet.co.uk
> 01325 718139   07990572365
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> 
>   
> 
> 
> 
> 