RoHS is European Union Directive 2002/95/EC on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment.

RoHS restricts the use of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), Hexavalent chromium (Cr6+), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).

While lead (Pb) is the most widely used toxic substance in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), the term "lead-free" is often wrongly adopted to refer to all of the substances specified in the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive. However, RoHS restricts a total of six substances, as noted in question #2 above. So to be truly compliant with this legislation, the presence of each of these substances must be reduced below their proposed maximum concentration values (MCV).

The extraction of these raw materials and their eventual disposal can cause damage to both the environment in terms of pollution, as well as to human health from occupational exposure and exposure following disposal. The removal of these materials from production will reduce the health risks of exposure, particularly for children, the elderly and pregnant women.

The RoHS Directive goes into effect on July 1, 2006. If selling products on the EU market, your products must be RoHS compliant by that date. Note, however, that many manufacturers are requiring compliance from their suppliers earlier than July 1, 2006 so they can make sure they can supply finished goods to the EU.

Yes, IDEC Corporation is changing all products over to meet the RoHS directive requirements.

Yes. The list of exemptions is growing all the time. The most important exemption for IDEC is the exemption of Cadmium (RH relay contacts) when used in an electrical contact.

Since RoHS is a EU directive, in the strict sense, compliance outside of the EU is not mandatory. However this directive is under review/consideration in several countries and states in the US.
In fact RoHS has been legislated as a law in California and Thailand. China's "Solid Waste Prevention and Control Law" will be similar to the RoHS. Their final regulation is due at the end of this year.
There are no RoHS equivalent laws in Japan, however the industry is following a voluntary program that aims to remove lead from the production process by the end of 2005.
The RoHS initiatives are transposed already in Switzerland and Norway. The due date is as per the directives. The Norwegian regulation has additional substance limitations.

The use of "banned" substances (lead, mercury, cadmium, Hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers) in spare parts to repair equipment put on the market before July 2006 will be permitted, but will not be allowed in new equipment. While still to be debated and agreed by governments, theoretically, non-compliant products could be used for repair indefinitely.

Standard test methods are under development. The EU Member States have not told anyone how they will test products for compliance, which is a violation of the WTO TBT Agreement. Meanwhile, most labs are adapting current tests to determine concentrations of RoHS substances in materials. X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES), Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (CVAAS), Direct Mercury Analysis (DMA), UV-VIS, GC-MS, and other techniques are currently being used.