SOLUTION
The mandatory national standards GB 30981.1-2025 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Coatings Part 1: Architectural Coatings" and GB 30981.2-2025 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Coatings Part 2: Industrial Coatings" will be officially implemented on June 1, 2026. This is China's implementation of full category and full chain hazardous substance control in the field of construction and industrial coatings, which is regarded as the "strictest" environmental protection standard in history and will profoundly reshape the competitive landscape of domestic and foreign enterprises.
◉ GB 30981.1-2025 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Coatings Part 1: Architectural Coatings"
The control scope of the old standard GB 18582-2020 is relatively limited, only targeting "building wall coatings" (including interior and exterior wall coatings, putty), without mandatory requirements for other auxiliary materials, which can easily lead to loopholes of "main materials meeting standards and auxiliary materials not meeting standards", seriously affecting the overall environmental protection of wall decoration.
The new standard GB 30981.1-2025 establishes a "full chain control" system, covering wall coatings, floor coatings, and supporting auxiliary materials (including putty, color paste, thinner, curing agent, etc.), to eliminate the hidden danger of auxiliary material pollution from the source.
1. Replace the following standards:
GB 18582-2020 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Building Wall Coatings"
GB 38468-2019 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Indoor Floor Coatings"
2. Scope of application:
It should include water-based wall coatings and auxiliary materials for on-site painting, as well as floor coatings and auxiliary materials for on-site painting.
Suitable for direct on-site painting of various wall coatings and auxiliary materials used for decoration, protection, and other special functions (such as mold prevention, algae prevention, insulation, etc.) on the inner and outer surfaces of buildings based on cement-based and other non-metallic materials; It is also suitable for direct on-site painting, decoration, protection, and other special functions (such as anti-static, corrosion-resistant, anti slip, etc.) of various floor coatings and auxiliary materials used in conjunction with cement mortar, concrete, stone, plastic, or steel floor substrates. Not suitable for building waterproof coatings, synthetic material surface coatings for sports fields.
3. Main technological changes:
1) Scope expansion:
Control requirements for newly added auxiliary materials such as putty, color paste, thinner, curing agent, paint remover, interface agent, repair paste, connecting water, whitening water, slow drying water, coloring agent, etc.
Add control requirements for outdoor floor coatings such as polyurethane floor coatings, acrylic floor coatings, silicone PU floor coatings, permeable concrete coatings, etc.
The decorative panel coating products and their items and indicators have been removed and placed under the control of GB 30981.2 industrial coatings.
2) Increase and adjustment of indicators:
Water based wall coating: added indicators such as SVOC content, total arsenic (AS) content, and methyl isothiazolinone (MIT) content; Adjusted the VOC content indicators for the primer (color paint) and gloss (60 °) ≤ 10GU flat coating of the interior wall paint; The total content of alkylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (APEO) in water-based wall coatings; The controlled varieties have been increased to include nonylphenol and octylphenol.
Floor coating: newly added indicators such as SVOC content, total halogenated hydrocarbon content, total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon content, free 4,4-diaminodiphenylmethane (MDA) content, and total lead (Pb) content; Add formaldehyde limits for solvent based and solvent-free floor coatings; Adjusted the VOC content index of solvent based floor coatings.
Auxiliary materials: indicators for adding harmful substance content.
Specific harmful substance limit indicators for specific coatings: stricter control has been implemented for specific coatings used in consumer goods that come into close contact with the human body, such as phthalates and heavy metals. It ensures the environmental protection and safety of coating products from more dimensions, reducing the risk of harm to human health and the environment.
◉ GB 30981.2-2025 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Coatings Part 2: Industrial Coatings"
1. Replace the following standards:
GB 18581-2020 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Wood Coatings"
GB 24409-2020 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Vehicle Coatings"
GB 24613-2009 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Coatings for Toys"
GB 30981-2020 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Industrial Protective Coatings"
GB 38469-2019 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Ship Coatings"
2. Scope of application:
Suitable for on-site painting and factory painting, various industrial coatings and auxiliary materials used for decoration, protection, and other functions on the surfaces of substrates such as wood, metal, plastic, concrete, composite materials, glass, ceramics, etc. Not applicable to aerospace coatings, nuclear grade protective coatings, military equipment and facility coatings.
3. Main technological changes:
1) Standard integration:
We have integrated five specialized standards in the fields of woodworking, vehicles, toys, ships, and industrial protection to form a unified industrial coating standard system.
2) Scope expansion:
Newly added auxiliary materials, suitable for industrial coatings and auxiliary materials of wood, metal, plastic, concrete and other substrates, including on-site coating and factory coating.
Classify three types of products, including fire-resistant coatings, decorative panel coatings, and building and structure protective coatings, into industrial coating management and separate them from the original building coating system.
A new category of products has been added, which refers to coatings for consumer goods that come into close contact with the human body.
The general term for liquid or solid coatings that can form a coating on the surface of consumer goods that frequently come into direct contact with the human body or food.
Change 'nuclear power coating' to 'nuclear grade protective coating'.
3) Stricter limit values for indicators:
Further refinement of VOC limits for coatings of different formulations and purposes, such as:
Waterborne wood coatings: Paint ≤ 250g/L, clear coat ≤ 300g/L;
Toy paint: The lead content limit has been tightened from 600mg/kg to 90mg/kg; The VOC limit for water-based toy coatings is stricter, with paint and varnish ≤ 420g/L;
Ship coatings: The limit for toluene content has been tightened from 15% to 10%;
Solvent free coating: Unified requirement ≤ 100g/L;
Radiation cured coatings: divided into 150g/L to 550g/L according to their application.
4) Multiple harmful substance limit indicators have been added:
Industrial coatings and their auxiliary materials: adding VOC limits for water-based coatings with multiple uses; Add VOC limits for fire-resistant coatings; New requirements for the "Xibuquni" index have been added to biological killing agents; the total control range of alkylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (APEO) has been expanded to include octylphenol and nonylphenol; Add SVOC content limit.
Toy coatings: added mercury content, total content of photoinitiators, and limit values for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons content;
Wood coatings: increased mercury content and total content of photoinitiators; Add limits for soluble lead, antimony, arsenic, barium, and selenium content.
Original automotive coatings and zinc aluminum coatings: Added limit for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon content.
Certain specific types of coatings: adding indicators such as VOC content.
5) Requirements for hazard labeling of newly added coatings:
Add requirements for hazardous labeling of coatings, clarify testing rules and cycles. Require labeling on the package label, and the content of the coating hazard label should include:
a) Description paragraph: Coating hazard;
b) Standard code and sequence number segment: GB 30981.2;
c) Characteristic segment, including the following three data segments:
Product model;
The self declared content of total lead (Pb) (mg/kg) is expressed as "Pb ≤ self declared value or limit value specified in this document";
If the product meets the requirements of 5.3 and is a coating that can be used for close contact with the human body, it is marked as "C" to indicate that the coating can be in close contact with the human body; If the product does not meet the requirements of 5.3 or has not been tested according to 5.3 (when there are specified items), it belongs to a coating that cannot be used in close contact with the human body. The mark "NC" indicates that the coating cannot be in close contact.
Among them, a) and b) are separated by a space; b) Use "-" connections between c) and the data segments in c).
Example
Coating hazard GB 30981.2-S-Pb ≤ 90-C
Coating hazard GB 30981.2-W-Pb ≤ 1000-NC
6) On site prohibition:
Nitro solvent based wood coatings should not be used in indoor decoration from the date of implementation.
◉ Main testing contents of coatings
SVOC content, VOC content, benzene content, total content of toluene and xylene, total content of halogenated hydrocarbons, total content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, methanol content, phthalate content, total content of ethylene glycol and ether lipids, heavy metal content, total lead (Pb) content, total arsenic (AS) content, methyl isothiazolinone (MIT) content, total content of alkylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (APEO), free 4,4-diaminodiphenylmethane (MDA) content and other indicators.
◉ Compliance Services
As a professional third-party testing and certification service organization, Jiayu Testing has qualifications such as CMA, CNAS, CPSC, CCC, and has been recognized by multiple authoritative certification agencies at home and abroad. The laboratory is strictly built and managed in accordance with standards, equipped with advanced instruments and equipment, and has a skilled professional technical team. It has rich industry service experience and strong testing technology capabilities, and is proficient in various regulatory standards. Since the release of mandatory national standards related to the Blue Sky Defense War, Jiayu Testing has actively responded to national policies and has CMA qualifications for coatings, adhesives, inks, cleaning agents, and related supporting testing standards. It can provide limited testing services for harmful substances in building coatings and industrial coatings for enterprises to ensure that their products meet the requirements of national mandatory standards. Welcome to contact us at 400-9269-886!
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