If you helped with the changeover, you should know this.
VOC is not the same as HAPS.
(Nor is VOC in any way related to how harmful the compounds are to people)
Trivial example:
Acetone is VOC exempt in the US.
It's pretty trivial to make a 0 VOC solvent based coating using acetone.
They tend not to because it's not horribly friendly to use, due to, among other things, how quickly acetone flashes off.
In truth, water based or solvent based doesn't really change the VOC level that much these days, nor would it really matter to people.
A lot of the auto paints are 2k urethanes.
a 2k water based polyurethane is still gonna be isocyanate + something else.
It doesn't really matter whether it's 0 VOC or not. You are going to use a supplied air respirator (minimum) because breathing isocyanate is a really bad idea.
So the idea, often floated, that lowering the VOC helped people's occupational exposure, is usually unsupported by evidence, at least in the auto industry (i'm only familiar with wood and auto :P).
The auto industry did not used to spray water based 2k urethanes. Now they do. Spraying and breathing a post-cat lacquer with n-butyl acetate in it + some acid, is infinitely better for you than spraying + breathing a water based 2k urethane with isocyanate in it.
Are there cases it ended up better for people? Sure, of course. But most of that is completely and totally independent of VOC content.
Because of course, most coatings manufacturers, surprise, optimized for legal VOC content, often at a cost to harmfulness to humans.
Note that, of my professional wood coatings, my water based and solvent based still have exactly the same amount of VOC (2.75lbs). Are there some that don't? Sure. They are mostly crap, because nobody has come up with magic ways to dissolve or emulsify various polymers and catalysts :)
So i can't get a water based post-cat conversion varnish that is anywhere near as good as a solvent based one. The chemistry to do it simply doesn't exist.
I can get a water based 2k urethane that has as nice (or nicer) properties than that conversion varnish, but at a high possible cost to my health. I'll pass.
If you helped with the changeover, you should know this.
VOC is not the same as HAPS.
(Nor is VOC in any way related to how harmful the compounds are to people)
Trivial example: Acetone is VOC exempt in the US.
It's pretty trivial to make a 0 VOC solvent based coating using acetone.
They tend not to because it's not horribly friendly to use, due to, among other things, how quickly acetone flashes off.
In truth, water based or solvent based doesn't really change the VOC level that much these days, nor would it really matter to people.
A lot of the auto paints are 2k urethanes. a 2k water based polyurethane is still gonna be isocyanate + something else.
It doesn't really matter whether it's 0 VOC or not. You are going to use a supplied air respirator (minimum) because breathing isocyanate is a really bad idea.
So the idea, often floated, that lowering the VOC helped people's occupational exposure, is usually unsupported by evidence, at least in the auto industry (i'm only familiar with wood and auto :P).
The auto industry did not used to spray water based 2k urethanes. Now they do. Spraying and breathing a post-cat lacquer with n-butyl acetate in it + some acid, is infinitely better for you than spraying + breathing a water based 2k urethane with isocyanate in it.
Are there cases it ended up better for people? Sure, of course. But most of that is completely and totally independent of VOC content.
Because of course, most coatings manufacturers, surprise, optimized for legal VOC content, often at a cost to harmfulness to humans.
Note that, of my professional wood coatings, my water based and solvent based still have exactly the same amount of VOC (2.75lbs). Are there some that don't? Sure. They are mostly crap, because nobody has come up with magic ways to dissolve or emulsify various polymers and catalysts :)
So i can't get a water based post-cat conversion varnish that is anywhere near as good as a solvent based one. The chemistry to do it simply doesn't exist.
I can get a water based 2k urethane that has as nice (or nicer) properties than that conversion varnish, but at a high possible cost to my health. I'll pass.