The three regions of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei jointly released the first unified environmental protection standard.
To reduce the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and promote the improvement of air quality in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province jointly formulated the "Limits for Volatile Organic Compounds Content in Building Coatings and Adhesives" (hereinafter referred to as the "Standard"). This is the first unified standard issued by the three regions in the field of environmental protection.
The Standard was simultaneously released in the three regions on April 12, 2017, and will be implemented simultaneously on September 1, 2017. It will implement full-process control over all aspects of production, sales and use of building coatings and adhesives.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important precursors of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3). With the urbanization process, the unorganized emissions of VOCs from the large-scale use of building coatings and adhesives have become one of the main sources of VOC pollution. In order to control the emission of volatile organic compounds at the source, in accordance with the overall requirements of the "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development Plan Outline", based on the existing technical conditions and control requirements in the three regions, after joint consultation, the "Limits for Volatile Organic Compounds Content in Building Coatings and Adhesives" was formulated as the first unified environmental protection standard for the three regions, exploring the path for the coordination and convergence of environmental protection standards among the three regions.
Firstly, it guides emission reduction from the source. A content limit standard specifically for volatile organic compounds in building coatings and adhesives products has been formulated, stipulating the limit requirements for VOCs content of each type of building coatings and adhesives. The standard limit guides the producers in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to use raw materials and production processes with low VOCs content, providing products that meet the standards to the market, selling the products that meet the standards through sales channels, and consumers choosing the products that meet the standards, thereby achieving the goal of VOCs emission reduction at the source.
The standard limit is strict. It is introduced that during the standard formulation stage, a large amount of research, testing and argumentation work was carried out on building coatings and adhesives products produced and sold in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. The product standard limits were tightened without affecting the product performance. At the same time, the detection and analysis methods for VOCs content in the products use the detection methods in the existing national standards, maintaining consistency with the existing detection methods and improving operability.
To facilitate supervision and guide consumers to choose products with low VOCs content, the Standard requires that product packaging labels supplement the content of product type, product use, volatile organic compound content, recommended diluents, dilution ratio, construction ratio, etc.
The Standard stipulates that products produced, sold and used in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region must meet the limit requirements for VOCs content. From the inspection of a single product production process, it has been expanded to the joint control of products in the production, sales and other processes.
