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This page last
reviewed on May 23, 2008.
Background:
The
Air Resources Board has authority to adopt regulatory requirements for
chemically formulated consumer products, fuel
containers, and indoor air cleaning products. Our
Consumer Products Regulatory Program is an important part of ARB's
overall effort to reduce the amount of volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) that are emitted from the use of chemically
formulated consumer products. "Consumer product" means a
chemically formulated product used by household and institutional
consumers, including, but not limited to, detergents; cleaning
compounds; polishes; floor finishes; cosmetics; personal care products;
home, lawn, and garden products; disinfectants; sanitizers; aerosol
paints; and automotive specialty products; but does not include other
paint products, furniture coatings, or architectural coatings. |
| VOCs
that are emitted into the air from consumer products and
other sources (motor vehicles, stationary sources, etc.) react
with other pollutants under sunlight to form ground-level
ozone and particulate matter (PM 10), the main ingredients in smog.
Reducing VOC emissions from consumer products therefore plays
an integral part in ARB's effort to reduce smog in California. |
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| What's New |
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This area includes
announcements of very recent activities such as recently released
documents, workshops and meetings. In some instances, a set of meetings
might be scheduled for a one or two-day period,
in which case agendas and supporting documents will be made
available in this area. In many cases, these same
documents will be linkable from other consumer product areas
within this
website. |
General Information
and Contact List |
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This area presents
some background materials concerning the ARB's efforts to reduce
volatile organic compounds from consumer products. These include a fact
sheet regarding consumer products and smog, a contact list for ARB
staff working in this program, a legal opinion on ARB's
authority to regulate consumer products and a link to
the Consumer Products
Enforcement Program. |
Regulatory
Activity -
"Formal" or "Informal" |
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The ARB works
closely with all stakeholders to develop technologically and
commercially feasible regulations that help to reduce VOC emissions
from consumer products. This process can be divided into two types of
regulatory activity - "Formal" and "Informal." |
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"Formal" regulatory activity
refers to the activity that actually involves the formal "rulemaking"
process. The formal regulatory activity always begins with
the release of the 45-Day Hearing Notice.
In this area of the website, there are various
documents associated with the rulemaking process. These
documents include
the Staff Report / Initial
Statement of Reasons for the Proposed Rulemaking,
15-Day Notice, documents forwarded to the Office of
Administrative Law (OAL) for formal approval, and acknowledgement of
the OAL's action on the rulemaking. The "Formal" page is found by going
through the informal regulatory activity pages. |
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"Informal" regulatory activity
refers to all activity that is NOT directly involved
in the formal rulemaking process. The informal regulatory activity is
comprised of all activities that either (1) are ongoing,
(2) have led to a formal rulemaking process, or
(3) have not and will not lead to a formal rulemaking
process. These activities include the State Implementation Plan
development activity, the Consumer Products Working Group
meetings, subgroup meetings, workshops, teleconferences, and
development of surveys, survey results, reports, and other documents. |
Consumer Products
Regulations and
Test Methods |
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Currently, there are
five consumer product regulations plus the consumer product test method
310. |
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ARB Programs
Consumer Products Program Informal Regulatory Activity
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