Phase out of solvent based paint still “a dream”
Education on hazardous materials needed as regulation will drive next wave of regional growth
The phase out of hazardous elements found in paints and coatings in the Middle East is still “a dream” with at least three years until public buildings will be covered by legislation in Dubai.
Responding to the issue of education regarding the dangers of heavy metals used in paints across the region, commercial manager for Dow Coating Materials, Bilal Ghaliani, told The Big Project roundtable: “Our ultimate objective is to have solvent free paint across the board. But it’s a dream.”
“Today, in the UAE and Saudi Arabia the top manufacturers do have the Green Seal certification for their products and they are the first manufacturing companies in the region to have that,” Ghaliani said.
“For the solvent based manufacturers we try to give them technologies that minimise the harmful effects. Our ultimate objective is to have solvent free paint across the board. But it’s a dream,” he added.
On June 3 Dow signed an MoU with Dubai Central Laboratory to guide its work to replace hazardous compounds in paints. The resulting regulations will tackle VOCs content of all paints used on government buildings within three years, with private sector buildings following afterwards.
Ghaliani added that the regulations formulated under the agreement would underpin the next wave of growth in the region.
“The next wave of growth in the region will be driven by legislation. Today you have, somehow, an unregulated market when it comes to paint manufacturing. People are doing their best to provide, between [guidelines], good quality paints, however you still need regulation in place,” he commented.
The discussion was also attended by Bayer Material Science’s regional marketing manager, Subramanian KSS, and regional technical manager, Dinesh Patel.
Patel commented: “We are not Europe or Singapore or a country where regulations are much more stringent. We are actually in an infancy stage now, and authorities are not fully equipped to raise awareness.”
