On December 12, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) published a final rule [Title VI of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)] to reduce exposure to formaldehyde emissions from certain wood products produced domestically or imported into the United States. U.S. EPA worked with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to help ensure requirements in the national rule were consistent with requirements in California’s airborne toxic control measure to reduce formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products (ATCM).
For composite wood products and finished goods that are sold, offered for sale, supplied, used, or manufactured for sale in California, if there is a difference between the CARB and U.S. EPA requirements, the more stringent requirement applies, regardless of whether it is a CARB or U.S. EPA requirement.
This means that if a CARB requirement is more stringent than U.S. EPA (e.g., for quality control testing), then the CARB requirement must be followed (see comparison table below). CARB accepts the TSCA Title VI label as being CARB compliant because the TSCA Title VI and CARB formaldehyde emission standards are the same.
