Russia
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by Vladislav Vorotnikov
Russia Correspondent
Some share of the coatings in Russia are sub-standard and in some cases the of- fered products even contain various toxins and heavy metals, posing a direct threat to
the health of consumers, according to Sergei
Fedotov, the President of the Russian Quality
Paint Association (RQPA).
RQPA was founded in October 2014 by
AkzoNobel, Chemours, Dow, Tikkurila and
Yaroslavl Paints. Shortly after Thor, Meffert
and a number of other companies joined. As
a result, 24 percent of paint in the country
is labeled with the RQPA’s seal of excellence.
According to the organization’s website, the
reason why Russia needs such a seal, is that
the legislative framework in the area of paints’
quality is very far from perfect.
As a result, nobody can say for sure how
much paint out of the remaining 76 percent
contains toxin substances, such as mercury,
cadmium, arsenic, lead pigment chromate or
volatile compounds.
The negligence and the crime
As explained by Fedotov, the problem of sub-
standard coatings at the Russian market has
two main aspects – the inadvertent and inten-
tional, and they have quite a different nature.
“In the first case, the problem is associated
with the suppliers of components that must en-
sure the absence of volatile organic compounds
and other dangerous substances in the delivered
products. However, the issue of components’
quality doesn’t receive proper attention, so the
plants don’t even request the data on the consis-
tenceny of the delivered products,” Fedotov said.
“As the plants mix up to 20 various components to manufacture coating, it is virtually
The Russian
Quality Paint
Association was
founded in 2014
to combat sub-standard products
being brought to
market.
Coatings in Russia Might be Dangerous to Health
