Bookham to be ROHS Compliant

CASWELL, U.K. -- Bookham, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKHM), a leading provider of optical components, modules and subsystems, is now fully compliant with the European Parliament's Restriction of the use of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive. Today's announcement follows an external audit by BSi (British Standards Institute) Management Systems during an independent third party assessment. BSi confirmed that Bookham had systems and processes in place delivering the necessary compliance ahead of the legal deadline of July 1, 2006.

The policies, procedures and documentary evidence established by Bookham for RoHS compliance were audited by BSi as part of the company's TL9000/ISO9001:2000 and 14001:2004 approval assessments. The auditors identified a number of areas for particular praise, including the company's design and new product introduction initiative, its supply chain management and its customer management and declaration.

"Bookham has recognized its obligations under the RoHS Directive and has formed a team across the business to ensure compliance," said the Lead Assessor from BSi. "It was evident that the amount of effort expended by Bookham in order to obtain compliance, and the processes implemented, has been to a level that reflects the professional nature of the organisation."

The RoHS directive bans the use of certain hazardous substances, including lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), in electrical and electronic equipment sold into Europe from July 1, 2006. In response to the directive, Bookham has been delivering RoHS compliant versions of its products to customers since April, 2006.

"Bookham is fully committed to environment protection and sustainable development and has set in place a comprehensive program for removing polluting and hazardous substances from all of its products," said Reiner Breu, VP Quality & Reliability at Bookham. "RoHS compliance is an integral part of our environmental policies and procedures and Bookham has worked with each of our suppliers to ensure the RoHS compliance of all our infeed components."

Bookham Inc. (Nasdaq: BKHM; London: BHM)