OWNER/OPERATOR INFORMATION SHEET
9/12/2005
HEALTHY AIR
Could your family
be affected?
One company in
Minnesota reviewed its
paint and coating
operations to determine
why extra paint stripping
was needed. By
improving their painting
and coating processes,
burn-off of racks and
reject parts decreased
by 20 percent and saved
over $17,000 annually.
— Minnesota Technical
Assistance Program
The Paint and Coating
Manufacturing Sector
partners with EPA to
assess opportunities for
improving environmental
performance while
reducing regulatory
burden.
— U.S. EPA
Reducing Air Pollution from:
Paint and Coating Stripping Operations
Why should my paint stripping
operation prevent air pollution?
People who are exposed to air toxics
at sufficient concentrations, for sufficient
durations, may increase their chances of
getting cancer or experiencing other
serious health effects, such as
reproductive problems, birth defects, and
aggravated asthma.
Pollution prevention safeguards the
health of your employees, customers,
and families by using materials,
processes, or practices that can reduce or
eliminate air pollution at the source. For
example, using abrasive blasting with
proper particle pollution (dust) controls
instead of chemical strippers reduces
worker exposure but creates more waste.
Pollution prevention practices may
also save money on waste disposal,
solvent usage, and the cost of air
pollution controls.
You may already be regulated by
federal, state, local, and Tribal agencies
and may already voluntarily implement
pollution prevention practices. These
practices can go beyond compliance and
further minimize impacts on human
health and the environment.
Why should I be concerned about air
pollution from my paint and coating
stripping operation?
• Solvents in chemical paint strippers
can release volatile organic
compounds (VOC) and some toxic
air pollutants. Chemicals in these
substances can also react in the air to
form ground-level ozone (smog),
which has been linked to a number of
respiratory effects.
• Methylene chloride is found in many
chemical paint strippers. While federal,
state, local, and Tribal regulations limit
the amount of emissions from paint and
coating stripping operations, dangerous
releases of methylene chloride can occur
if a paint and coating stripping operation
is not in compliance with regulations.
• Lead, chromium and cadmium are
metals that may be generated as particle
pollution (dust) during abrasive paint
removal or mechanical paint stripping.
Breathing dust can cause respiratory
problems and other harmful health
effects.
How can I reduce air pollution from my
paint and coating stripping operation?
Evaluate Painting and Coating Processes
• Assess your painting and coating
processes to determine what is causing
the need to strip and repaint. Improperly
cleaned or dried parts, faulty equipment,
or improper handling may damage a
product and make it necessary to strip
and repaint.
Use Chemical Strippers without
Methylene Chloride
• Use strippers, such as dibastic ether, that
do not contain chemicals that produce
toxic air pollutants.
• Use aqueous "hot" strippers.
• Use other solvent "cold" strippers.
• While hot and cold stripping are less
toxic than using methylene chloride, use
caution when implementing them.
A facility that repaints 30- and 55-gallon drums for reuse switched from
using a hot caustic paint remover to using a mechanical paint removal
system of metal and nylon brushes. The net savings was $35,000 a year,
including $6,000 a year from not needing to pur chase sodium hydroxide.
— Solvent Alternatives Guide
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OWNER/OPERATOR INFORMATION SHEET
Paint and Coating Stripping Operations
Consider Mechanical Methods
• Rub small areas of non-detailed surfaces with a brush
made of wire, animal hair, plastic, or synthetic
materials that have been impregnated with abrasive
grit.
• Protect worker health and safety by using respirators
as needed.
Implement Abrasive Stripping Techniques
• Tumbling is a stripping method in which parts are
placed in a mixer and tumbled with stones or other
abrasive material.
• Plastic medium blasting is a paint and coating
stripping method that uses nontoxic plastic media to
remove paint and coatings from parts. Plastic
blasting media can also be recycled and reused until
the particles are too small to be effective.
• Wheat starch can be used for blasting. Wheat starch
blasting media are made from renewable agricultural
products, which reduces nonrenewable resource
consumption.
• Sodium bicarbonate can be used for paint and
coating stripping by mixing it with water and
shooting the mixture at the part to be stripped. The
water controls dust and cools the part being stripped.
• Investigate other abrasive paint stripping methods,
including carbon dioxide pellet cryogenic blasting,
high-pressure water blasting, and medium-pressure
water blasting.
• Protect worker health and safety by using respirators
as needed.
Use Heat or Cold to Remove Paint
• Burn-off ovens use high temperatures to burn paint
off a surface. Organic paint volatilizes into carbon
dioxide and water. Inorganic pigments may need to
be scraped off.
• Immerse parts in a molten salt bath. This method also
volatilizes organics in coatings into carbon dioxide
and water. Inorganic pigments remain on the part and
need to be scraped off.
• Use fluidized sand beds. Heated sand or other
granulated material vaporizes the organics in the
coating and gently removes inorganic residue from
the part.
• Flash lamps and lasers are new technologies.
Focused light from these two sources is used to heat
the coating and decompose it.
• Cryogenic paint stripping freezes the coating until it
cracks and can be mechanically removed from the
surface.
Control Dust when Using Abrasive Technologies
• Plastic blasting and wheat starch blasting can generate
paint chips that may contain metals such as cadmium
and lead.
• Plastic media blasting can create dust that is
flammable. Ensure that the dust from plastic media
blasting does not reach levels where combustion can
occur.
• Protect your workers by using respirators as needed.
How do I choose which paint and coating stripping
technology to use?
Choosing the appropriate paint and coating removal
technology to use requires a consideration of many factors
such as the location, size, and composition of the object to
be stripped.
The size and location of the object may restrict the type
of technology that can be used. For example, racks used in
painting and coating operations may be too large to move
into a chamber for thermal stripping.
The composition of the object to be stripped may limit
the kinds of the stripping technology that can be used as
well. For instance, some metals may be susceptible to
cracking when plastic medium blasting is used. Wheat
starch blasting may be preferable.
What else can I do to reduce air pollution?
Your community may already have groups working for
cleaner air. Your expertise and knowledge can be very
helpful to these groups.
Many pollution prevention offices offer free on-site
assessments for interested businesses. A list of these small
business assistance programs can be found at
www.epa.gov/smallbusiness. This site provides
information about assistance and technical help,
environmental experts, environmental regulations and
laws, funding, and cost-saving opportunities.
Also, sponsor employee awards for good ideas, great
efforts, and dedication to pollution prevention. For
example, you could provide a cash award for workers who
implement cost-saving work practices.
HEALTHY AIR: A COMMUNITY AND BUSINESS LEADERS GUIDE
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HEALTHY AIR
A CDMHUIITIT AID BUSINESS UlDtBS OUIOi
Could your family
be affected?
An agricultural
implement manufacturer
in Wisconsin switched
from stripping rejected
parts in a hot sodium
hydroxide bath to using
plastic media blasting.
Comparison:
A. Hot Bath Method
Annual amount of
hazardous waste
generated: 19,000
pounds
Annual cost of
hazardous waste
disposal: $36,000
B. Plastic Media
Blasting Method
Cost of plastic media:
$8,000
Capital cost for plastic
media blasting unit:
$8,000
Annual cost of
hazardous waste
disposal plastic media:
Net annual
savings: $32.000
— Solvent Alternatives
Guide
OWNER/OPERATOR INFORMATION SHEET
Paint and Coating Stripping Operations
9/12/2005
Resources
• National Paint and Coatings Association: www.paint.org, (202) 462-6272
• Paints and Coatings Resource Center: www.painteenter.org
• EPA Sector Strategies Program for the Paint and Coating Sector: www.epa.gov/
sector s/paintcoatings/in dex. html
• Small Businesses: www.epa.gov/smallbusiness
• Community-Based Projects: www.epa.gov/air/toxicair/community.html
Pollution Prevention Techniques
• U.S. EPA Guide to Cleaner Technologies: www.p2pays.org/ref/02/01048.pdf
• Reducing waste and hazardous materials: www.mntap.umn.edu/paint/56-
PaintStrip.htm
• Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Research Center: www.pprc. org/pprc/rpd/
fedfund/epa/epastd/evalbead.html
Stripping Alternatives
• Solvent Alternatives Guide: www.sage.rti.org
• Safer stripping and cleaning materials: www.mntap.umn.edu/paint/55-
SaferStripping. htm
Toxicity of Chemical Paint Strippers
• Paint stripper suppliers and vendors
• Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS): www.epa.gov/iris
• Air Toxics Health Effects Notebooks: www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hapindex.html
An aviation company installed a closed, plastic bead-blast paint stripper
system to replace chemical stripping using methylene chloride.
Installation costs were $18,000, and the payback period based on
reduced waste-disposal costs alone was estimated at 3.6 years. Overall,
the technology is relatively inexpensive and can easily be transferred to
other industries and small companies.
— Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Research
Center
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