Environmental Advisory Notice 153522EA rev 01, Print Date: 23 March 1995

The Handling of Batteries from Apricot Products

The British Government has issued a Statutory Instrument 1994 No. 232 Health and Safety, entitled "The Battery and Accumulators (Containing Dangerous Substances) Regulations 1994".

The purpose of this regulation is to move the battery industry away from producing hazardous materials which end up uncontrolled in the environment. This is to be done by enforcing collection schemes and by giving deadlines by which certain hazardous materials will become prohibited if an alternative exists.

This regulation shall come into full force on 1st August 1994. The regulation shall affect both non-chargeable and chargeable batteries containing specified amounts of mercury, cadmium and lead.

The improper storing, transportation or disposal of batteries containing mercury, cadmium or lead is deemed as a criminal offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, Duty of Care.

The Marking of the Batteries

It is a requirement of the regulation that the batteries be marked to identify that they can be recycled and are not to be disposed of with normal domestic waste. A separate collection and heavy metal content mark is required on the outside of the batteries or the power supply containing the batteries.

If due to size restriction the label can not be put on the battery then the outside case of the product will be labelled.

The separate collection mark shall have a maximum size of 5 cm x 5 cm. The heavy metal content mark of the battery shall be printed beneath the separate collection mark and cover an area of at least one quarter of the size of the separate collection mark.

Batteries containing mercury will have the mark "Hg", cadmium "Cd" and lead "Pb".

The label will be of the form :

Pb

Existing Apricot product made before this regulation came into effect will contain batteries containing hazardous substances and these batteries will also be un-marked. If these batteries can be recognised by type they should be treated as marked batteries. If the battery type can not be recognised, advice should be sought from the battery manufacturer.

The manufacturers are :

The Removal of the Batteries

The products manufactured by Apricot are classed by this regulation as excluded appliances. In general batteries within Apricot products are permanently attached to ensure continuity of power supply and the batteries contained are not recommended to be removed by the consumer. Apricot recommend that only trained personnel should attempt the removal of any type of battery from an Apricot product.

If you require further assistance please contact Apricot Computers Limited on 0121 717 7171.

The Disposal of the Batteries

Information on disposal of batteries should be sought from the Waste Regulation Authority which is part of your Local Authority.

User Instructions

The user manual shall include wording to instruct the user what to do when for some reason the batteries or UPS needs to be removed.

The wording should be of the form: