Korea removes volatile organic compound ‘PCBTF’ contained in paint from exemption from content restriction 
On March 7, 2022, National Institute of Environmental Research (hereinafter referred to as the NIER) under the Ministry of Environment of South Korea published the amendment of the Regulations on Designation of Exempt Substances for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Contained in Paint (NIER Regulation No. 828) to remove p-Chlorobenzotrifluoride (PCBTF, CAS No.98-56-6) from the list of volatile organic compounds in paint that are exempt from content restrictions. Note that this amendment shall apply from April 1, 2022. In South Korea, in order to reduce emissions of VOCs, the content of VOCs in paint has been regulated by application since 2005 based on Clean Air Conservation Act, which is the superordinate law. However, in consideration of the state of manufacturing technology in the paint industry, this regulation has been in operation with a separate designation of substances to be exempted.
This time, according to the announcement by the NIER, PCBTF was designated as 2B (possibly carcinogenic) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), so the conformity of the substance was reconsidered in South Korea and a final decision was made to remove it from the exemption from the content regulation. The NIER explained that for paint manufactured and imported from April 1, 2022, the amount of PCBTF used will be included when calculating VOCs in paint. However, those manufactured and imported as exempted substances prior to the application of this revision may be supplied, sold, or displayed/stored for the purpose of sale until September 30, 2022.
With the removal of PCBTF from the exemption, the following four substances will be the exempted substances from the content regulation from April 1, 2022.
Appendix 1: Exempted substances of VOCs in paint (after amendment)
| No. | Chemical name | CAS No. |
| 1 | Acetone | 67-64-1 |
| 2 | Dimethyl carbonate | 616-38-6 |
| 3 | Tert-butylacetate | 540-88-5 |
| 4 | 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol | 124-68-5 |
Regulations on Designation of Exempt Substances for Volatile Organic Compounds Contained in Paint (NIER Regulation No. 828) can be viewed at the following URL (in Korean).
https://www.law.go.kr/admRulLsInfoP.do?admRulSeq=2100000209743
The original text of this press release can be viewed at the following URL (in Korean).
http://me.go.kr/home/web/board/read.do;jsessionid=q5AplXdbibEWpQEq39YDEkwJ.mehome1?pagerOffset=60&maxPageItems=10&maxIndexPages=10&searchKey=&searchValue=&menuId=10525&orgCd=&boardId=1512200&boardMasterId=1&boardCategoryId=&decorator=
