Volitile Chemicals?

[Intercooled]

There has been alot of talk onhere about products and how they changed because of some new laws.(Volitile Chemicals). What exactly are they, and what do they do?

I assume its just an environmental thing?:nixweiss

 

[Black240SX]

Volatile Organic Chemicals are the problem. They're mainly solvents that evaporate and cause air pollution.

 

[foxtrapper]

VOC = Volatile Organic Compound. In order to be classified as such they must (a) evaporate into the air, and (b) react to help form smog. That's things like water and acetone are not VOC's. They do evaporate, but they don't contribute to smog formation.



There's a whole lot more to it than that, but that's it in a nutshell.

 

[Intercooled]

So in other words, some of our favorite polishes and waxes have conributed to smog formation in some way?:nixweiss

 

[Bill D]

To me it just seems like the car care companies are easy pickings :down

 

[foxtrapper]

So in other words, some of our favorite polishes and waxes have conributed to smog formation in some way?

Yep.

 

[Intercooled]

I find that ludicris and absolutley nit pickin. But who am I to say.

 

[Bill D]

Yes, sadly it's going to continue so the best bet is to identify your favorite products now and have a healthy stock of them. This isn't to say any new VOC compliant products can't be quite good, it's just following the "they don't make 'em like they used to" philosophy.

 

[Mochamanz1]

I was in Pep Boy's today, and I saw Reflections and FX polish, they both promenently listed having petroleum distillates in the ingredient list. So, what exactly ARE the outlawed components of the products that have been required to be reformulated? Is there a list of what is no longer considered safe for the enviorenment somewhere ? Maybe we could check out our inventories to see what to hoard....

 

[Black240SX]

I don't think the components are outlawed as such, but rather there is a limit on the amounts.

 

[wannafbody]

the newer petroleum distillates are further refined than many of the older ones

 

[Charlie Matco]

i'm old enough to remember the smog in los angeles in the 1950's. it was worse than it is today. california is doing the right thing by controlling the voc levels in high consumable products. i think the change will potentially result in better products because it is forcing chemists to go back to the drawing board. i'm no chemist, but i have enough of an engineering background to know you can't simply replace component a with b and get the widget to work correctly.

 

[foxtrapper]

So, what exactly ARE the outlawed components of the products that have been required to be reformulated? Is there a list of what is no longer considered safe for the enviorenment somewhere ?

There is no list of prohibited chemicals. It is a limitation of VOC content on a pound VOC per gallon of product basis. An example you are familiar with is house paint. Latex paints came about as a result of the restriction of VOC content in household paints.

 

[togwt]

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC):

There is current on-going legislation in California to reduce the percentage in these compounds; these regulations are placing a limit of 14% VOC for polishes/waxes/sealants and 17% for compounds.



Hard-pressed paste wax is limited to 45% VOC, manufacturers are allowed a three-year sell through (01.01.07) for product made previously to December 31, 2004. There have already been significant reductions of allowed VOC used in resin (paint) systems

 

[Mochamanz1]

i'm old enough to remember the smog in los angeles in the 1950's. it was worse than it is today. california is doing the right thing by controlling the voc levels in high consumable products. i think the change will potentially result in better products because it is forcing chemists to go back to the drawing board. i'm no chemist, but i have enough of an engineering background to know you can't simply replace component a with b and get the widget to work correctly.

I agree with you on the California emissions standards, but one point I would like to make is that L.A. is in a desert, and the topography is sort of like a bowl, if my memory serves me, so the weather , topography makes a non-cleansing situation occur. and IMHO, Problems are magnified in these conditions. Now, I do not advocate not paying attention to humanities only home, but I wonder if the regulators are not being a bit too strident.... Even if people waxed thier cars daily, how much pollutant does this really constitute next to all the other millions of tons daily pushed into the air with apparent legal blessings?

 

[foxtrapper]

but I wonder if the regulators are not being a bit too strident.... Even if people waxed thier cars daily, how much pollutant does this really constitute next to all the other millions of tons daily pushed into the air with apparent legal blessings?

The regulators really aren't being overly strident on this one, and other sources (presuming you are inferring industrial/commercial sources) are very heavily regulated and restricted, with some outright bans.



A rough breakdown of air pollution is 1/3 business, 1/3 automotive, 1/3 home-owner. The business and automotive sources are heavily regulated and curtailed, while the home-owner has been untouched. Home-owner pollution issues have been regarded as the "third rail", and no one has wanted to touch it for years. But, we're being forced to slowly. It's probably going to snowball.



Individually, you waxing your car has insignificant impact on the environment. But when you realise that thousands of tons of automotive wax are sold and used every year in this country, the size of impact from wax (or aerosol deodorant sprays) becomes much more real. Hence, the call for regulation to minimize the impact.