Written on: January 1, 2025 by Doug Raymond
Happy New Year! This year will be filled with new challenges as we work with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), and likely Oregon and other jurisdictions, on volatile organic compound (VOC) issues. As we will also need to work on American Innovation & Manufacturing Act (AIM) compliance, we should look at these regulations as opportunities. Let the fun begin!
CARB
On Dec. 5, 2024, CARB held a webinar on its Consumer Products Reporting Tool (CPRT) for the upcoming 2023 survey. This survey is the beginning of the next rulemaking for Consumer Products. During the webinar, CARB staff responded to Industry’s comments from the October 2024 webinar in which they shared the categories that will be surveyed.
First change—and this is a big one—CARB has dropped reporting years 2020, 2021 and 2022. CARB listened to our comments, and this update will reduce the workload significantly. Now, Industry needs to report 2023 sales and formulations for products sold into California from the following categories, which includes three new ones (listed in Bold):
• General Purpose Cleaner (non-aerosol)
• Anti-Microbial Dry Hand Wash (hand sanitizer)
• Laundry Detergent
• Hand & Body Conditioner, Cream, Lotion and Moisturizer
• Air Freshener, Liquid/Pump Spray
• Deodorant
• Plastic Pipe Cement & Primer
• Disinfectant (aerosol)
• Permanent Hair Dye
• Conditioner without styling claims
• Floor Wax Stripper
• Oven & Grill Cleaner (non-aerosol)
• Sunscreen (hair or body) (aerosol)
• Body wash/Mousse/Gel/ Soap/Foam/Scrub
• Liquid Fabric Softener
• Antiperspirant
• Dual Purpose Air Freshener/Disinfectant (aerosol)
• Paint Remover Stripper
• Thinner/Reducer/Retardant (Motor Vehicle Coating Systems)
• Paint Thinner (non-aerosol)
• Sealant or Caulking Compound (non-chemically curing)
• Lacquer Thinner
• Footwear or Leather Care Product (all other forms)
• Multi-Purpose Solvent (non-aerosol)
• Footwear or Leather Care Products (aerosol)
• Clean-Up Solvent
• Rust Preventative or Rust Control Lubricant (aerosol)
• Undercoating (aerosol only)
• Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner (non-aerosol-dilutable)
• General Purpose Degreaser (aerosol)
• Metal Polish/Cleanser (aerosol)
• Cutting or Tapping Oil (aerosol)
• General Purpose Degreaser (non-aerosol)
• Spot Remover (non-aerosol)
• Sealant or Caulking Compound (chemical curing)
• Multi-Purpose Dry Lubricant
• Penetrant
CARB’s next change was to extend the deadline for the survey until April 8, 2025. This gives Industry an extra month from the original proposal to complete the survey. Once again, they listened to our comments and incorporated a change.
CARB staff answered our questions on definitions and OTC drugs, and while we might not have liked their answers, at least they responded to our comments. Another issue was Fate and Transport; CARB is still pursuing these categories, but stated that they will consider new data. Lastly, CARB added three new product categories to our list, as indicated above, bringing the total number of categories to possibly be regulated to 37.
One other feature for this survey is that CARB staff will follow up with formulators for Responsible Parties. This means that, if you have a filler/formulator for your product, then CARB will follow up with the third party. All the responsible party needs to do is supply CARB the formulator name, contact name and email address by the deadline of Jan. 14, 2025. Even though the turnaround is short to report this information, this should lessen the burden on marketers.
Overall, CARB gave us some positive changes, indicating that our comments were received and considered. I believe this is a good sign for this rule development.
CARB Date Code
This is my annual friendly reminder about Product Dating/Date coding. Make sure you are up to date on your date code filings, as this is an area that CARB continues to become stricter with.
Date code information needs to be reported to CARB every year by your company if you do not use CARB’s standard date coding. California Section 94512 (b) product dating specifically requires all consumer products sold into the State to display the day, month and year the product was manufactured or a code indicating the date. CARB has been increasing its activity on investigating and levying fines for non-compliance of this section.
The date or date-code information shall be located on the container or inside the cover/cap so that it is readily observable or obtainable (by simply removing the cap/cover) without irreversibly disassembling any part of the container or packaging. Information may be displayed on the bottom of a container as long as it is clearly legible without removing any product packaging.
CARB’s standard code that must be represented (separately from other codes on the product container so that it is easily recognizable) is the following: YY DDD = Year Year Day Day Day. A manufacturer who uses this standard CARB code to indicate the date of manufacture does not have to report this code.
Failure to register a date code is subject to a fine, which seems to go up each year. Your date code explanation needs to be submitted to CARB Enforcement on an annual basis, on or before January 31 of each year, and can be sent via email to: cpenforcement@arb.ca.gov.
AIM
Remember that the AIM labeling requirement for the four-digit date code began on Jan. 1. The date code required by the AIM Technology Transition Section is the four digits of the year (i.e., 2025) placed anywhere on the container. SPRAY
