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On July 17, 2024, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released three draft mandatory national standards regarding the limits of harmful substances in coatings and indoor decoration materials. They are:
GB 30981.1—XXXX Limit of harmful substances of coating materials Part 1: Architectural coatings
GB 30981.2—XXXX Limit of harmful substances of coating materials Part 2: Industrial coatings
GB18587—XXXX Indoor decorating and refurbishing materials—Limit of harmful substances of carpets, carpet underlays, adhesives and polyvinyl chloride flooring
GB 30981.1~2 Limit of harmful substances of coating materials
These two draft standards consolidate and revise 7 existing national standards. GB 30981.1-XXXX combines GB 18582-2020 Limit of harmful substances of architectural wall coatings and GB 38468-2019 Limit of harmful substances of interior floor coatings. Similarly, GB 30981.2-XXXX is a merged revision of the current GB 30981-2020 Limit of harmful substances of industrial protective coatings, GB 18581-2020 Limit of harmful substances of woodenware coatings, GB 24409-2020 Limit of harmful substances of vehicle coatings, and GB 38469-2019 Limit of harmful substances of marine coatings.
The revision took into account relevant international standards, the regulations and green certification standards from the Europe and the US, as well as China's own environmental labeling standards. As a result, the draft standards incorporate the latest international practices in controlling harmful substances and adopt internationally recognized test methods.
Through this revision and integration, the product categorization will become more reasonable, inspection items will be more comprehensive, and technical indicators will be more stringent. This will promote industry upgrades from simply low volatile organic compounds (VOC) coatings to low VOC and low semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOC) coatings. This will also enhance the control of biocides in coatings and foster the overall green development of coatings in China.
The key highlights of the proposed GB 30981.1~2 are:
Expanded control of auxiliary materials
For auxiliary materials, the current mandatory national standards only regulated the putties used in water-based wall coatings and wood coatings. The new standards will cover a wider range of auxiliary materials used during coating application or coating maintenance to improve substrate conditions, coating applicability, coating compatibility, coating film performance, etc., such as colorants, thinners, curing agents, paint strippers, interface agents, caulking agents, repair pastes, fade out thinners, retarders, slow-drying water, etc. These auxiliary materials may also contain harmful substances that can impact the environment and human health.
Considering the inclusion of auxiliary materials other than putties within the scope of the mandatory national standards for coatings for the first time, the revision of these standards will mainly focus on the harmful substances of most concern and minimize unnecessary testing. These harmful substances include heavy metals, formaldehyde, benzene, halogenated hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, glycol ethers and esters, etc.
Management of coatings for consumer products in close contact with the human body
The new GB 30981.2 for industrial coatings will for the first time include costings used for consumer products in close contact with the human body. It will adopt the control logic from GB/T 23994-2009 Limit of certain harmful elements of coatings for consumer products contacting with human body, and also reference the latest international regulations on heavy metal control, such as ASTM F963-17, 16CFR1303, EN71, and Canada's SOR/2022-122. The focus will be on harmful substances of greatest concern to consumers, such as soluble heavy metals, total heavy metals, phthalates, and banned photoinitiators.
Special functional coatings
Since the implementation of GB 30981-2020 and GB 24409-2020, the National Technical Committee on Paints & Pigments of the Standardization Administration of China has received a lot of feedback for special functional coatings. The new GB 30981.2 will provide a definition for "special functional coatings" – solvent-borne coatings with high VOC content that possess one or more special functions in addition to protection and decoration, and cannot be replaced by environmentally friendly coatings due to technical limitations. The specific product categories will be listed in the notes of the definition, such as electroplating silver effect paints, marking paints, insulating coatings, fingerprint resistant coatings, zinc-aluminum coatings, electronic component protective coatings, biometric functional coatings, electromagnetic shielding conductive coatings, flame-retardant coatings for energy storage and power batteries, etc.
The new standards also introduce important indicators like SVOC limits and new packaging labeling requirements. Enterprises will need to make major adjustments to their formulations, packaging, instructions, and promotional materials. A 12-month transition period is recommended after the standards are officially published.
GB18587 Indoor decorating and refurbishing materials—Limit of harmful substances of carpets, carpet underlays, adhesives and polyvinyl chloride flooring
GB18587-XXXX sets limits on the harmful substances in carpets, carpet underlays, adhesives for carpet installation, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) floorings, and specifies the testing methods for these substances.
It will replace two existing mandatory standards:
GB 18587-2001 Indoor decorating and refurbishing materials - Limitations of harmful substances emitted from carpets，carpet cushions and adhesives
GB 18586-2001 Indoor decorating and refurbishing materials--Limit of harmful substances of polyvinyl chloride floor coverings
As a mandatory national standard, the safety requirements outlined in it are fundamental and will apply across the entire industry, without separate classifications for "environmentally-friendly" products versus general products.
Given the broad product scope covered by the consolidated standard, the ministry has proposed a 24-month transition period after the standard is officially issued. During this time, the authority will conductguidance activities to help enterprises adjust to the new requirements and strengthen product supervision.
