Frances Wu, "AIR QUALITY REGULATION OF CONSUMER PRODUCTS"

Numerous government agencies, both federal and state, regulate emissions from consumer products. These regulations are designed to improve ground level ozone and smog levels by reducing the volatile organic compound (VOC) content of these products. VOC content in personal care products is primarily due to the alcohol (ethanol) levels in these products.

The State of California has been the most aggressive regulator in this area. Since the late 1980s, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has initiated five separate rulemakings to reduce ethanol levels in personal care products. These rulemakings have resulted in regulations that required the reformulation of many of our industry’s products, including hair sprays, hair styling gels, hair mousses, antiperspirants and deodorants, nail polish remover, and shaving creams.

CARB has begun to publicly recognize the dwindling fruitfulness of obtaining reductions of VOC through the traditional mass-based approach. Consequently, CARB is now exploring alternative regulatory approaches. These include possibly non-consumer product based approaches that will aid its goal of ozone level reduction in California.

While at the Federal level, EPA regulates the VOC content of consumer products, a multistate organization, called the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC) has developed model regulations loosely based on the California regulation. Individual member states of the OTC can then adopt their own regulations, based on the OTC model rule. There is also a coalition of Midwestern states, known as the Lake Area District Consortium (LADCO) and some of these states have adopted regulations in their respective jurisdictions based on the OTC model rule.