CARB Penalises Top US Retailers for Breaching VOC and Small Container Regulations

California Air Resources Board (CARB) has fined highly reputed industries recently for breaching VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) regulations in the state of California. One MNC reached a settlement agreement for $415,000 (VOC regulations) and was also fined $60,000 additionally for violating small containers of automotive refrigerant regulation. The products that were exceeding VOC limits fell under the product categories “Hair Finishing Spray” and “Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid.” Reports suggest that the violations in VOC content have resulted in excess VOC emissions; around 30 tons excess from the Hair finishing spray category and 0.17 excess from the Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid (Non-Type “A”) category. Additionally, the small containers of automotive refrigerant regulation were violated when CARB found out that uncertified refrigerant containers were sold in 2018 and 2020 and that, these cans (containing R-134a) had exorbitant levels of global warming potential. CARB also learned that the company failed to instruct customers to effectively use and return purchased containers for recycling.

Another company settled by paying fines up to $145,000, also for exceeding VOC limits. Product categories “Paint Thinners” and “Multi-Purpose Solvent” were found to violate the regulation limits. Similarly, a floral coating product was found guilty of having a high reactivity limit (gO3/g). These violations caused 11.9 tons of excess VOC and ozone emissions. CARB also found out that the products did not meet labeling requirements.

APA Engineering with over 19+ experience in ‘Product Chemical Compliance’ & Global client base, has designed a secure web-based application capable of providing visually informative reports on where you can/cannot sell your products, with respect to zip-codes. Can It Be Sold (CIBS)? is a distinctly superior software that serves the purpose of determining the compliance of a product under various regulations. Manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and retailers of automotive parts and accessories will highly benefit from using CIBS to comply with government laws. Currently, CIBS is stacked with regulations from the USA. More product regulations from other geographic locations are now being currently researched upon.

How can APA Engineering help you by avoiding the penalty?

• ● A dedicated, full-time staff of chemical engineers, software engineers, and regulatory experts
• ● Daily monitoring of regulations down to zip/postal code level
• ● Easy UI or API to query and answer the question “Can it be sold here”?

APA will be able to adapt and customize CIBS according to the customer’s product type and interests. Our research team will study all the product info given by the customer and reprogram the software (along with the regulations) to the customer’s needs.