COUNTYWIDE : 13 Paints Targeted by Air Quality Panel
The Board of Supervisors will consider Tuesday a set of stringent air pollution control guidelines for outdoor paints that are designed to reduce hazardous emissions by one ton per day in Ventura County.
The guidelines, proposed by the county’s Air Pollution Control District, would prohibit the sale of at least 13 types of paints, including some types of wood lacquer, quick-drying enamels, industrial paints and primers.
The proposed standards target paints with a high content of organic solvents, which evaporate during the paint’s drying process and contribute to air pollution, county officials said.
District officials said the proposed guidelines would pressure manufacturers and distributors to make and sell paints with lower solvent contents.
The proposed guidelines have prompted letters of protest from almost 20 paint distributors in the county.
In a comment typical of protesters, one letter said that the new standards would ban “high-quality and socially valuable consumer products.”
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