AQMD Votes to Curb High-Polluting Paints, Varnishes

Regional air quality officials on Friday slapped strict new controls on certain household paints and varnishes in an effort to improve air quality. The action was strongly criticized by paint manufacturers and contractors.

The tough new rules, which will take effect in July and become even more stringent by the end of 1993, will affect between 15% and 25% of all paints and other architectural coatings sold in California. Total annual statewide sales of the affected products are estimated at $180 million by the Southern California Paint & Coatings Assn.

The controls will reduce the amount of smog-causing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in a category of architectural coatings known as specialty coatings--quick-drying and high performance oil-based enamel paints, primers, sealers, undercoatings, stains, wood preservatives, varnishes, lacquers and shellacs.

The new restrictions are another example of how the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s sweeping 20-year plan to bring the four-county basin into compliance with federal clean air standards is having an impact on everyone from big industry to homeowners. The AQMD already has required employers in the region to provide incentives for employee car-pooling. And it is planning other steps that will affect back-yard barbecuing, dry-cleaners and household products such as cleansers and aerosol sprays.

“This is a question of our concept of life style in this basin,” said Pat Nemeth, AQMD deputy executive officer. The new paints and coatings, she said, may well be inferior to those now on the market. But, she said, that is the price that must be paid for cleaner air.

The regulations approved Friday do not affect the water-based latex paints most popular with do-it-yourselfers, or oil-based paints, lacquers and varnishes with high VOC levels sold in more costly, quart-size cans or smaller quantities. The new rules, the AQMD said, are aimed at discouraging large-scale use of the products while not banning them altogether.

Paint manufacturers and contractors warned that the rules not only will drive up the cost of home remodeling, but will cause reformulated white and light-colored oil-based paints to turn yellow within 60 days of application. The contractors predicted that the changes will force them to add polluting solvents to improve the quality of the reformulated products.

The AQMD estimates that the rule will reduce VOC emissions by 4.5 tons a day, or about 1.2% of all the VOC reductions the district hopes to achieve within the next five years. Overall, VOC emissions from stationary sources is 578 tons a day, with architectural coatings accounting for 64 tons of that, or about 11%. The bulk of the emissions come from business and industrial plants in the basin, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

According to the AQMD, the price for primers and sealers could drop as much as $3.60 a gallon, chiefly because costly solvents will be reduced. But staining products could increase by $1.10 a gallon because more expensive solvents must be substituted in those substances.

Volatile organic compounds, sometimes called hydrocarbons or reactive organic gases, are one of two prime ingredients of photochemical smog. They combine with oxides of nitrogen--produced by combustion--and in the presence of sunlight are transformed into ozone, a health-threatening air pollutant.

The regulations were approved on a 7-2 vote after a five-hour public hearing on Thursday. Voting against the rule were Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Gov. George Deukmejian’s appointee to the board, Stephen Albright.

During Thursday’s public hearing, paint contractors, some manufacturers and others said that reformulating oil-based paints to reduce VOCs would require more coats of paint or varnish and still result in lesser quality. But those contentions were disputed by the AQMD.

Industry spokesmen said the rule could actually increase pollution because contractors would likely add smog-forming solvents to improve the product’s performance and because more coats would be needed.

“The manufacturers will get paid to make more paint, the contractor will get paid to put more on, and we’ll all pay with our health due to increased emissions,” Jim Sliff, technical services manger of Vista Paint Corp., told the board.

“I feel like a crook. I feel like a cheat. I have to charge more money for more paint for less quality,” said Anaheim painting contractor Don Salvatore.

Others testified that painting contractors would add thinners and other smog-causing solvents to the reformulated paints and varnishes in attempts to improve them even though it would be illegal to do so. As VOCs are reduced, the paint becomes thicker and harder to handle, they said.

“I really resent being put in the posture of being a criminal polluter,” complained Mark Robson of Ram-Mar Painting Inc. in Hesperia.

AQMD officials said the new limits, in some cases, will have the practical effect of banning some home uses of lacquers altogether. The new lacquers will be too thick to brush on at home. So, in the case of kitchen cabinets, for instance, homeowners may have to buy pre-finished cabinets that are stained or varnished at a factory where more polluting lacquers can be used because the factories have air pollution control equipment.

Once the regulations take effect, stores will have three years to sell stocks of inventories manufactured using the old formulas.

AQMD officials said enforcement efforts will focus on professional contractors. Penalties range from $1,000 to $25,000 a day for illegal use.