Following the EU Directive "Banning Hazardous Materials From Adoption In Electronic and Electric Equipment," which bans electronic products containing six harmful elements (including lead, mercury and cadmium) from entering the EU market, China has decided to establish a standard to that effect.

To that end, the Printing and Raster Display Sub-Association of the China Computer User Association has conducted a comprehensive test on the harmful materials in the ink used in ink-jet printers and hopes to make some amendments to the currently relatively lenient ink standards.

At the same time, the pollution problems caused by printing materials has gained wide attention from the printer manufacturing industry as a whole, which has vowed to follow the EU directive strictly. It is anticipated that by 2006, the relevant printing products in the Chinese market will measure up to the directive.