Beijing city and home furniture manufacturers

konjaku: a footnote to the previous post, as to why “home furniture manufacturing” is being singled out as one of the “polluting industries” to be expelled from Beijing city.

Beijing to put into effect the strictest standards regulating polluting discharges from home furniture manufacturers 2015-06-10

By 2017, oil and solvent-based paint will be completely expelled the wood furniture processing International

http://news.ifeng.com/a/20150610/43947664_0.shtml

On-line News (reporter Lin Wei): Beijing in the near future will issue new environmental standards, involving industries that use boilers, petroleum, and also home furniture manufacturing. Among these, the new, stricter standards regulating polluting discharges from home furniture manufacturers have drawn the most public attention. The new standard considerably reduces the amount of benzene allowed in wood furniture, and the permitted level of particular matter (PM 2.5) discharges will be fixed. This will not only improve the quality of the atmosphere, but will benefit the consumer as well.

The permitted level will be announced soon. An official in Beijing’s Department of Environmental Protection said it will be the strictest yet. During the wood furniture production process pollutants are discharged into the air : benzene, non-methane hydrocarbons, and particulate matter. The density of these emissions must stay below a certain limit. Also, in the finishing of the wood, spray paint and polishing agents are discharged into air. These uncontrolled emissions must be subject to investigation to determine the consistency of droplets, and a limit established. Beijing Department of Environmental Protection Deputy Chief Zheng Zaihong divulged that the goal behind formulating these new standards is to eventually remove the oil-based paints and solvents from the marketplace entirely. According to the China Industrial Paint Association, application of paint releases 4.3 million tons of volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere every year. Oil-based paints comprise 98% of this total, water-based paint 2%. The superiority of water-based paint in terms of environmental effects is obvious. The goal is to completely replace oil-based paint products in the market with water-based paints. By the first day of 2017, oil-baed coatings and spray paints are to be completely banned.

In the European Union, water-based paints which do not contain formaldehyde, benzene, methylbenzene, and other harmful substances, currently make up more than 90% of the products sold on the market. However, since the technology necessary to make these products is more exacting, the net costs are higher, therefore in the home furnishings industry in China, use of these products is not yet widespread. Deputy Chief Zheng Zaihong divulged that at present furniture manufacturers that use only water-based paints make up only 15% of the market.

konjaku: a number of articles mention the health hazards to consumers from wood furniture that has high levels of formaldehyde, as in this cartoon, in which the salesman says, “zero formaldehyde”: