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Regulatory Issues
Doug RaymonD
Raymond Regulatory Resources
summitpackagingsystems.com
8 Spray July 2018
CARB amendments adopted
On May 25, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted new amendments to the Consumer
Products Regulation. The new amendments affect the Multi-Purpose Lubricant (MPL) category. CARB
staff has been working on these amendments for more than a year, beginning in 2017 with the Technology
Review on MPL. In the autumn of 2017, CARB staff proposed the amendments, which are as follows:
• The current 10% volatile organic compound (VOC) limit is still in effect;
• An alternative maximum incremental reactivity (MIR) limit to the 10% is now available;
• An alternative MIR limit is 0.45 with a 25% mass VOC limit;
• The original effective date of 12/31/2018 has been delayed until 7/1/2019;
• Any manufacturer or marketer of MPL products using the alternative MIR limit needs to register the
product formula with CARB before selling the product in California;
• Additionally, manufacturers or marketers of MPL products using the alternative MIR limit will be
subject to sales reporting.
The Amendments adopted by CARB obtain the required emission reductions in the State Implementation
Plan (SIP) and provide manufacturers and marketers of MPL products much needed flexibility to
comply with this technology-forcing limit.
At the CARB hearing, five industry members testified in person and 10 letters in support of the rule
were sent in; CARB then unanimously adopted the amendments. The adopted rule now goes to the
Office of Administrative Law for finalization.
The other important feature of these amendments is that, for the first time, the concept of reactivity
is being used on a consumer product other than aerosol coatings. This is a very good precedent for consumer
products. The use of reactivity is a science-based way to reduce ozone production, as any reduction
in an MIR value of a product is also a reduction in ozone production. The same cannot be said with
mass base reductions.
To sum it up, this was a win for air quality in California, a win for MPL products getting more flexibility
and, finally, a win for the aerosol industry’s use of reactivity. Thus, a win-win-win. Savor this—it does
not happen often.
This is perfect timing for these amendments to be adopted. As you will read below, CARB has released
its survey data.
CARB Survey data released
On June 4, CARB staff released the long awaited data from the 2013 and 2014 Consumer Products
survey. The data summaries are very impressive. More than 1,500 product manufacturers or formulators
participated, providing CARB with over 300,000 product formulations sold into the state of California.
Now, after months of waiting for this information, it is industry’s turn to review this massive amount of
data. The survey can be found at https://www.arb.ca.gov/consprod/survey/survey_results/new_2013_2014_
survey_draft.htm.
You should begin reviewing this information; the 2015 data will be out this autumn for us to review,
but, for now, this data should keep us busy.
EPA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will begin work on the Significant New Alternatives
Policy (SNAP) rule. Remember, the original SNAP rule for restricting primarily HFC-134a in Aerosols
was vacated this year. On June 26, the EPA hosted a series of sector-only meetings, including an Aerosol
Meeting; more on this meeting and how EPA is going to handle this issue in a future column.
OTC
On June 7, the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC) held its spring meeting in Baltimore, MD. The
main concern for the aerosol industry was OTC’s newest model rule. It is the fifth version of the Consumer
Products rule and was taken from the CARB Consumer Products rule, incorporating all categories
and limits that were in effect from the CARB rule as of Jan.1, 2017. That means it contains virtually all
the limits, except for those in the MPL category. One other exception was the Windshield Washer Fluid
limit. This category limit will remain the same.
continued on pg.42...
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