China publishes draft revised standard that sets limits on harmful substance content in building coating materials 
On July 17, 2024, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published a draft mandatory national standard that sets limits on harmful substance content in coating materials used for buildings. The ministry is seeking comments on the draft through Sept. 14, 2024.
The draft standard combines two current national standards into new one. The current standards are “Limit of Harmful Substances of Architectural Wall Coatings” (GB 18582-2020) and “Limit of Harmful Substances of Interior Floor Coatings” (GB 38468-2019). The new one would be titled“Limit of Harmful Substances of Coating Materials Part 1: Architectural Coatings”. The final version is planned to come into effect 12 months after its publication, but a publication date hasn’t been set yet.
The draft adds semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) to the controlled harmful substance list. It also adds arsenic and methylisothiazolinone (MIT) to the controlled substance list, and requires coating products to list all the biocides added to them, taking into account biocide regulations in the U.S. and Europe and other considerations.
