California Air Resources Board

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) staff has developed proposed amendments to the Antiperspirants and Deodorants Regulation; Consumer Products Regulation; Aerosol Coating Products Regulation; Alternative Control Plan Regulation; the Tables of Maximum Incremental Reactivity Values; and Test Method 310 (Proposed Amendments) for Board consideration on March 25, 2021. 

Staff held five public workshops in support of the Proposed Amendments, on April 12, 2019, November 7, 2019, April 14, 2020, July 28, 2020, and November 10, 2020, and held 22 topic-specific public work group meetings to elicit public feedback in identifying and refining our regulatory proposals.  Information regarding these public meetings can be found below.  The following items are also known as "Informal Regulatory Activity." This means that the items below may or may not become part of the formal rulemaking process (i.e., they have not yet been presented to our Board for action).  CARB posted the Formal Rulemaking Documents for the Proposed Amendments on February 2, 2021, and the 45-day public comment period for the Proposed Amendments began on February 5, 2021. 

Consumer Product Regulations Amendments Public Workshop

The webinar was held at the date, time, and locations shown below:

At this final public workshop, staff discussed refinements to its draft regulatory proposals shared at the previous public workshop on July 28, 2020.  This included the following topics and information:

• Proposed VOC standards for Manual Aerosol Air Freshener, Hair Care Categories (Hair Finishing Spray, Dry Shampoo, Hair Shine and Temporary Hair Color), Personal Fragrance Products, and Aerosol Crawling Bug Insecticide.
• Proposed Sunset of the Two Percent Fragrance Exemption for most product categories;
• Proposed Innovative Product Exemption criteria to encourage development of products using compressed gas propellant instead of HFC-152a in Hair Finishing Spray, Dry Shampoo, and Aerosol Personal Fragrance Products; and
• Proposed amendments to the Energized Electrical Cleaner definition.

CARB staff thanks stakeholders for their participation in helping to develop and refine these draft regulatory proposals, and looks forward to bringing draft proposed Consumer Product Regulation Amendments to the Board for its consideration in February 2021.

Previous Consumer Products Program Public Work Group Meetings

Proposed Amendments to Energized Electrical Cleaner Definition

CARB staff invited interested stakeholders in the retail and wholesale automotive supply chain and automotive repair establishments of a webinar to discuss proposed changes to the Consumer Products Regulation. Staff proposed to modify the definition of the “Energized Electrical Cleaner” category to restrict sales of this product to Automotive Repair Establishments and by Automotive Parts and Accessories Stores.

“Energized Electrical Cleaners” are products labeled to clean and/or degrease electrical equipment where cleaning and/or degreasing is accomplished when electrical current exists, or when there is a residual electrical potential from a component such as a capacitor. The current consumer products regulations also require these products to be labeled with the statements “Energized Equipment use only. Not to be used for motorized vehicle maintenance, or their parts.”

Despite this definition and labeling requirement, a significant amount of energized electrical cleaner products containing toxic air contaminates (TACs) such as perchloroethylene and elevated levels of VOCs, are being sold by automotive parts and accessory stores, and to automotive repair establishments.

During the webinar, staff provided background information on the overall consumer products rulemaking process, the VOC and TAC emissions issues driving the Energized Electrical Cleaner staff proposal, and the proposal itself.  

Consumer Products Regulations Amendment Public Workshop

Staff presented its draft final proposed Consumer Products Regulations amendments at this public webinar, including CARB's proposals to set or lower VOC content limits for Hair Care Products (Hair Finishing Spray, Dry Shampoo, Hair Shine, and Temporary Hair Color), Personal Fragrance Products, Manual Aerosol Air Freshener, and Aerosol Crawling Bug Insecticide, as well as proposed regulatory changes to improve program implementation.

Proposed Sunset of Two-Percent Fragrance Exemption, Product Label Definition Update (to Include Web-Base Claims), and Energized Electrical Cleaner Definition Amendment

At this webinar CARB staff described its proposals to: 1) sunset the two-percent fragrance exemption for most regulated product categories; 2) include product claims a manufacturer makes on its internet site in the definition of a product label for product classification purposes; and 3) update the definition of Energized Electrical Cleaner to address product purchase for off-label usage and reduce emissions of air toxics.

Proposed Test Method 310 Amendments and Associated Consumer Products Regulations Updates

At this webinar CARB staff discussed the proposed amendments to 'Method 310: Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) in Consumer Products and Reactive Organic Compounds (ROC) in Aerosol Coating Products', and associated updates to the Consumer Product Regulation.

At this webinar CARB staff discussed the proposed Test Method 310 updates and related Consumer Product Regulation changes. For more information regarding this meeting, contact Mr. Keith Kennedy.

At this webinar CARB staff discussed the proposals to its development of the Consumer Products Regulation amendments.  

If you have any questions about this webinar, contact Mr. Josh Berghouse.

At this webinar CARB staff discussed the proposed Regulatory Definitions Work Group Meeting to prioritize and discuss possible Consumer Product Regulation definition updates. This meeting focused on existing Consumer Product Regulation definition updates suggested by CARB and public stakeholders to improve program transparency, enforceability, and effectiveness. This Regulatory Definitions Work Group meeting was held in person at the following date and time.

At this webinar CARB staff discussed the development of proposed California Consumer Products Regulation amendments.  The workshop was held at the date and time shown below:

Interested stakeholders were invited to participate in the next round of consumer product rulemaking work group meetings, during which CARB staff solicited stakeholder feedback on its draft policy and technical evaluations of key consumer product categories and topics areas. Three topic-specific meetings were held by webinar only, between September 20 and October 17, 2019. These four meetings were open to all interested stakeholders.

CARB staff conducted a Regulatory Definitions Work Group Meeting to prioritize and discuss possible Consumer Product Regulation definition updates.  This meeting focused on existing Consumer Product Regulation definition updates suggested by CARB and public stakeholders to improve program transparency, enforceability, and effectiveness.  This Regulatory Definitions Work Group meeting was held in person at the following date and time.

Regulatory Definitions Work Group Meeting

Staff welcomed and encouraged your participation in this effort to develop concise, transparent, and effective regulatory language for updates to the Consumer Products Regulation. We look forward to your feedback throughout the rulemaking process. If you have questions, contact Mr. Nicholas Berger, Air Pollution Specialist, at (916) 327-1516.

Background: The 2016 State Strategy for the State Implementation Plan requires CARB develop measures to reduce consumer product volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions by 1 - 2 tons per day (tpd) by 2023 and 4 - 5 tpd by 2031, respectively, in the South Coast Air Basin, and 8 -10 tpd by 2031 Statewide. At its April 12, 2019 public workshop to initiate rulemaking to meet these emission reduction commitments, CARB proposed to evaluate consumer product survey categories with more than 0.5 tpd VOC emissions as part of its rule development process. These initial work group meetings will be held by teleconference.

CARB also encourages interested stakeholders to meet individually with staff to discuss category-specific issues, emission reduction opportunities, and possible innovative regulatory approaches. CARB intends to utilize these meetings to propose specific categories and possible regulatory options for discussion at a second public workshop in Fall 2019, and to bring a regulatory proposal to the Board for its consideration in late 2020.

April 12, 2019 Workshop

To initiate rulemaking to achieve additional emission reductions from consumer products, CARB held a public workshop on April 12, 2019. Materials from this kickoff public workshop are posted below.

April 12, 2019 Workshop Notice
Workshop Presentation
Survey Data Summary and Findings
Appendix A: Survey Category VOC Histogram

Consumer Products Program - Rulemaking - Informal Activity