CommScope (www.commscope.com) announced in late December that all its enterprise cables now manufactured comply with industry environmental regulations that are scheduled to become effective in mid-2006. "CommScope has virtually eliminated lead, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, mercury and polybrominated biphenyls [PBB] and polybrominated diphenyl ethers [PBDE] from its enterprise cables to meet the requirements of the 'Restrictions of the use of Hazardous Substances' [RoHS] directive," the company stated in announcing its compliance.

All twisted-pair, fiber-optic, and coaxial cables produced under the CommScope Systimax and Uniprise brands in the company's plants in Claremont, NC; Bray, Ireland; Brisbane, Australia; Jaguariuna, Brazil; and its wholly owned subsidiary in Omaha, NE now comply with these requirements.

"We have achieved a significant environmental milestone," said Sandra Young, CommScope's global vice president of enterprise solutions marketing. "CommScope has always had a commitment to manufacturing environmentally friendly cable. Our 'green' product development philosophy has made this compliance effort easier for us and has helped us stay ahead of the industry."

The RoHS regulations prohibit the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment as well as in their materials and components, such as some cable products. The European Union is implementing programs to ensure compliance by July 1, 2006. In the U.S., the state of California has already adopted similar regulations. Other states either have already adopted or are considering implementing similar regulations in the future, as are countries such as China.