Ruling Suspends Ban on Aerosol Spray Paints

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has suspended a ban on aerosol spray paints and a reformulation of paint sold in quart containers that would have taken effect Jan. 1, 1992, as part of the effort to clean up the region’s smog.

In a ruling released Thursday, Judge Ronald M. Sohigian agreed with 21 paint manufacturers, dealers and contractors that the South Coast Air Quality Management District failed to consider the possibility that two of its rules might add to pollution instead of reducing it.

The coalition argued that people who cannot use aerosol spray paints would be forced to use brushes, which are usually cleaned with polluting solvents. Paint in quart containers--as in an earlier ruling on gallon containers--would be so thick under new restrictions that people would use more, paint more frequently and thin it with solvents. AQMD spokesman Tom Eichhorn said an appeal is likely.