The Ohio Environmental Protections Agency (OHEPA) issued a call for stakeholder input to potential revisions to their air pollution regulations by adopting a series of rule addressing emissions from consumer products. Specifically, OH EPA requested input on elements contained in the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC’s) model rules for consumer products which Ohio EPA seeks to formally adopt via a future rulemaking action. Once adopted, these standards are applicable statewide and apply to persons who sell, supply, offer for sale, or manufacture for sale in the state of Ohio any identified consumer product manufactured on or after the effective date of the rule.
Included as a potentially regulated consumer products are two used routinely by the textile screen printing industry. The proposal seeks to include the use of platen adhesives and spotting fluids and set volatile organic compound limits and for spotting fluids, ban the use of methylene chloride, perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene as an ingredient.
Since there is no clear definition of a platen adhesive, PRINTING United provided the following definition to the Agency:
(viii) “Platen Adhesive” means the use of an adhesive, either aerosol or bulk, that is designed and labeled exclusively to hold garments or fabric on the flat plate of the printing unit of a printing press to hold the substrate in position during screen printing or finishing operations.”
The current recommendation is to implement a VOC content limit of 55% by weight. PRINTING United indicated that this VOC content limit is still under investigation and a more definitive response will be provided when the rule is proposed for public comment and review. Any suppliers who provide platen adhesives to the textile screen printing industry are encouraged to contact us with relevant VOC content information for their products.
The other category of spotting fluids currently has a VOC content limit of 15% by weight for aerosols, and 3% by weight for non-aerosols. In the comment submitted, PRINTING United indicated that the spotting fluids used by the textile screen print industry would be classified as aerosol products due to the nature in which they are applied. We will continue to engage in this rulemaking activity. For more information, or if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Marci Kinter, mkinter@printing.org, or Gary Jones at gjones@printing.org