Regulatory Information
What does labelling involve?
This product meets the requirements for the TCO'95 scheme which provides for international and
environmental labelling of personal computers. The labelling scheme was developed as a joint effort by the
TCO (The Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees), Naturskyddsforeningen (The Swedish
Society for Nature Conservation) and NUTEK (The National Board for Industrial and Technical Development
in Sweden). The requirements cover a wide range of issues: environment, ergonomics, usability, emission of
electrical and magnetic fields, energy consumption and electrical and fire safety. The environmental
demands concern restrictions on the presence and use of heavy metals, brominated and chlorinated flame
retardants, CFCs (freons) and chlorinated solvents, among other things. The product must be prepared for
recycling and the manufacturer is obliged to have an environmental plan which must be adhered to in each
country where the company implements its operational policy. The energy requirements include a demand
that the computer and/or display, after a certain period of inactivity, shall reduce its power consumption to a
lower level in one or more stages. The length of time to reactivate the computer shall be reasonable for the
user.
Labelled products must meet strict environmental demands, for example, in respect of the reduction of
electric and magnetic fields, physical and visual ergonomics and good usability. On the back page of this
folder, you will find a brief summary of the environmental requirements met by this product. The complete
environmental criteria document may be ordered from:
TCO Development Unit
SE-114 94 Stockholm, Sweden
Fax: +46 8 782 92 07
Email (Internet): [email protected]
Current information regarding TCO'95 approved and labelled products may also be
obtained via the Internet, using the address: http://www.tco-info.com/
TCO'95 is a co-operative project between TCO (The Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees),
Naturskyddsforeningen (The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation) and NUTEK (The National Board for
Industrial and Technical Development in Sweden).
Environmental Requirements
Brominated flame retardants
Brominated flame retardants are present in printed circuit boards, cables, wires, casings and housings. In
turn, they delay the spread of fire. Up to thirty percent of the plastic in a computer casing can consist of flame
retardant substances. These are related to another group of environmental toxins, PCBs, which are
suspected to give rise to similar harm, including reproductive damage in fisheating birds and mammals, due
to the bio-accumulative * processes. Flame retardants have been found in human blood and researchers fear
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