CCPCT - The Alternative Adhesives Project

The Alternative Adhesives Project

Alternative Adhesives Technologies: Foam Furniture and Bedding Industries (A Cleaner Technologies Substitutes Assessment)

The Design for the Environment (DfE) Program in EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) is a voluntary, cooperative program that works in partnership with industry to develop and distribute pollution prevention and environmental and human health risk information on alternative chemicals, processes, and products. The DfE approach uses cleaner technologies substitutes assessments (CTSAs) to evaluate the performance, cost, and environmental and human health impacts of competing technologies. A CTSA is a compilation of considerations and reference materials related to available and emerging technologies in a given industrial sector. The aim of the CTSA is to assist businesses in making more informed decisions that fit their situation.

The foam fabrication, upholstered furniture manufacturing, and mattress manufacturing industries rely heavily on adhesives throughout their operations. Many of these companies are small businesses. Historically, the adhesives used by these industries were based on 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCA), an

COMMENTS

For more information or to submit comments on any of the documents linked to below, please contact Jack Geibig at the Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies (jgeibig@utk.edu; 865-974-6513).

ozone-depleting substance. When production of TCA was banned, these industries generally converted to adhesives based on methylene chloride (METH), a suspect carcinogen. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) developed a very stringent regulation on METH which became effective for most METH users in April, 2000. Most companies could not meet the new worker exposure limits without a substantial investment in ventilation equipment. As a result, nearly all companies plan to convert away from METH-based adhesives. Various types of alternative adhesives are available and the businesses need guidance on their cost, performance and relative risks so they can select the alternative that is best for their operation. This project provides the comparative information on the adhesive alternatives.

This project ws conducted in cooperation with the Institute for Research and Technical Assistance (IRTA) and the DfE program. Links to the three volumes of the report are below. All documents are in Adobe Acrobat's pdf format. If you need to obtain the Adobe Acrobat Reader, please click here.