At the present time, when a spraypainting facility applies for a Schedule 9 Air Permit from the Ontario Ministry of Environment's (MoE) Environment Assessment and Approvals Branch (EA&AB), the facility must submit copies of the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for the paint and solvent product that is in use in the facility. In some cases this amounted to almost 350 pages.

As part of a new simplified approvals process that the industry is working on with the MoE, this web site was identified as a means of reducing shop costs and time and streamlining the approvals process for the Ministry. We believe that it would benefit all parties.

The intent of the solvent library is:

• to have up-to-date product information so the engineer and the EA&AB can have accurate data in order to review a Certificate of Approval
• to allow the industry better information in order to more easily provide the necessary emissions reporting data required by the proposed emission reporting regulation for the Environmental Monitoring and Reporting Branch as of January 1, 2002

The solvent library also will include data from paint spray gun manufacturers, spray booth manufacturers, manufacturers of gun wash and solvent recycling equipment plus coating suppliers in Canada.