On May 30. 2025. the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Standardization Administration jointly issued two mandatory national standards, "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Paints Part 1: Architectural Paints" (GB 30981.1-2025) and "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Paints Part 2: Industrial Paints" (GB 30981.2-2025), which will be officially implemented on June 1. 2026. This move marks that my country's control of harmful substances in architectural and industrial coatings has entered a new stage of more precise and stricter control, aiming to protect consumer health, promote green and high-quality development of the industry, and help prevent and control environmental pollution.
Background and significance of the new standard
As an important basic material, the safety and environmental protection of paints are related to consumer health, and industrial coatings are a key link in air pollution control. Under the continuous guidance of environmental protection policies, environmentally friendly products such as water-based paints, high-solid paints, and powder coatings are booming in my country, and the industry's VOC emission reduction has achieved remarkable results. After more than 20 years of implementation of mandatory national standards, my country's limit requirements for harmful substances such as formaldehyde, heavy metals, and benzene in coatings have become increasingly stringent and actively benchmarked against international standards. The integration and revision of the GB 30981 series of standards aims to more scientifically regulate product safety and environmental protection, promote the transformation of the coatings industry towards high quality and sustainability, and enhance international market competitiveness.
Limits of harmful substances in coatings
Part 1: Architectural coatings GB 30981.1-2025
This document replaces GB 18582-2020 "Limits of harmful substances in wall coatings for construction" and GB 38468-2019 "Limits of harmful substances in indoor floor coatings".
Purpose:
To standardize the implementation of limit value requirements, test methods, inspection rules, signs and documents for the content of harmful substances in various types of architectural coatings and auxiliary materials.
Core content:
Specifies the product classification, requirements, test methods, inspection rules, signs, and implementation of documents related to the permissible limits of substances harmful to the human body and the environment in building coatings and auxiliary materials.
Scope of application:
Applicable to all kinds of wall coatings and auxiliary materials used for direct on-site painting, decoration, protection, and other special functions (such as mildew prevention, algae prevention, thermal insulation, etc.) for the interior and exterior surfaces of buildings based on cement and other non-metallic materials; also applicable to all kinds of floor coatings and auxiliary materials used for direct on-site painting, decoration, protection, and other special functions (such as anti-static, corrosion resistance, anti-slip, etc.) for the floor base surfaces such as cement mortar, concrete, stone, plastic or steel. Not applicable to building waterproof coatings and coatings for sports fields with synthetic surface layers.
Limits of Hazardous Substances in Coatings
Part 2: Industrial Coatings GB 30981.2-2025
This document replaces 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 Toy Coatings", GB 30981-2020 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Industrial Protective Coatings" and GB 38469-2019 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Marine Coatings".
Purpose:
To standardize the implementation of the limit value requirements, test methods, inspection rules, signs and documents for the content of harmful substances in various types of industrial coatings and auxiliary materials.
Core Content:
It specifies the product classification and coating hazard marking, requirements, test methods, inspection rules, signs and documents related to the allowable limits of substances harmful to the human body and the environment in industrial coatings and auxiliary materials.
Scope of application:
Applicable to on-site painting and factory painting, for decoration, protection and other functions of the surface of wood, metal, plastic, concrete, composite materials, glass, ceramics and other substrates, and various industrial coatings and auxiliary materials used in conjunction with them. Not applicable to aerospace coatings, nuclear-grade protective coatings, and coatings for military equipment and facilities.
Unified management and implementation
The drafting of the two standards strictly follows GB/T 1.1-2020 "Guidelines for Standardization Work Part 1: Structure and Drafting Rules of Standardization Documents". Both are managed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (339), and the specific implementation work is entrusted to the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Paints and Pigments (TC5).
The classified implementation of these two new national standards has established a clearer and more complete standard system for the limit of harmful substances in coatings. It not only sets a unified and stricter safety and environmental protection red line for coating products in the two major application fields of construction and industry, but also provides a strong basis for supervision. It will further guide and promote the research and development and application of environmentally friendly coating technologies and accelerate the green transformation and upgrading of the entire coating industry chain.
