European Union moves closer to banning cadmium in TV's

The European Parliament voted last week to re-assess the use of cadmium in TV sets sold across Europe, saying safer alternatives to the toxic and carcinogenic substance were now widely available.
Cadmium is widely used in illumination and display lighting applications such as LCD screens used in television sets or desktop computers.

The substance was exempted from the EU directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) because safer alternatives were not available at the time of adoption, in 2002. RoHS requires replacing heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium, with safer alternatives, when available.