No more DIY antifouling in EU countries?

[Lizzy Belle]

Regulations that pass or fail DIY antifouling paint products for the European market will be changing significantly over the next three to five years.

The established view that boat owners can use antifouling paints in a responsible way, following the label instructions and wearing appropriate protective clothing – such as gloves – is being challenged, and manufacturers need evidence to support this position.

The implications for boat owners are significant, with potential restrictions of antifoulings to professional use only and revised products for the DIY sector which have limited product performance or life time. This will increase costs to the boat owner and potentially threaten UK waters with an increase in the translocation of invasive species due to a lack of effective fouling control.

Gareth Prowse, UK regulatory affairs manager, with responsibility for AkzoNobel’s brand International Paint, said: ‘it could mean that tried-and-tested biocide antifouling products are not re-registered. We’re coming to the point where each of the active ingredients we use will or will not be approved for use in our products.’

Duty of care

Gareth continued: ‘Over the years, we’ve seen an increasingly conservative approach to risk assessments where there is uncertainty of data about the actual impact on the environment or individuals using the product. This is a very sensible approach: paint manufacturers and regulators alike have a duty of care to protect those that use antifouling paints and the environment, but recently it’s becoming so conservative that the assumptions within the risk assessment may not reflect actual practice. For example, it’s expected that individuals will not take care of themselves.

‘We believe that antifouling paints have been used safely and effectively by experienced boat owners for many years.’

Gareth said the battle to show that regulators can trust DIY users has ‘to some extent already been lost’ as this is ‘opinion, not fact’.

He added: ‘Now the presumption is that people don’t wear gloves or protective clothing. For us to pass the recommended EU risk assessments, we have to either scale back the active ingredients, which will affect the product’s performance, or provide proof of careful use.’

Read more at The future of DIY antifouling: it’s apparently in your gloves - Practical Boat Owner

[cruisersfarm]

Seems like hiring a diver to scrape every couple months will cost less than hauling, paint (plus marina markup) plus labor.

[Southern Star]

Oh my! Next the manufacturers of power tools will be required to prove that their customers use safety goggles.

[deblen]

Wrap EU babies in bubble wrap at birth. Have EU approved people to change the wrap as they grow. Bury them with bubble wrap intact.

Sadly,the same mentality is encroaching on this side also.

How did the children in this video ever survive a trip around the Horn?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKS-...ature=youtu.be

[barnakiel]

Same old EU BS.

No problem. I will paint in Morocco, much nice climate there.

b.

[Jason Flare]

Originally Posted by deblen

Wrap EU babies in bubble wrap at birth. Have EU approved people to change the wrap as they grow. Bury them with bubble wrap intact.

Sadly,the same mentality is encroaching on this side also.

How did the children in this video ever survive a trip around the Horn?

That would be child abuse today. The government would take their kids.

[leftbrainstuff]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

Regulations that pass or fail DIY antifouling paint products for the European market will be changing significantly over the next three to five years.

The established view that boat owners can use antifouling paints in a responsible way, following the label instructions and wearing appropriate protective clothing – such as gloves – is being challenged, and manufacturers need evidence to support this position.

The implications for boat owners are significant, with potential restrictions of antifoulings to professional use only and revised products for the DIY sector which have limited product performance or life time. This will increase costs to the boat owner and potentially threaten UK waters with an increase in the translocation of invasive species due to a lack of effective fouling control.

Gareth Prowse, UK regulatory affairs manager, with responsibility for AkzoNobel’s brand International Paint, said: ‘it could mean that tried-and-tested biocide antifouling products are not re-registered. We’re coming to the point where each of the active ingredients we use will or will not be approved for use in our products.’

Duty of care

Gareth continued: ‘Over the years, we’ve seen an increasingly conservative approach to risk assessments where there is uncertainty of data about the actual impact on the environment or individuals using the product. This is a very sensible approach: paint manufacturers and regulators alike have a duty of care to protect those that use antifouling paints and the environment, but recently it’s becoming so conservative that the assumptions within the risk assessment may not reflect actual practice. For example, it’s expected that individuals will not take care of themselves.

‘We believe that antifouling paints have been used safely and effectively by experienced boat owners for many years.’

Gareth said the battle to show that regulators can trust DIY users has ‘to some extent already been lost’ as this is ‘opinion, not fact’.

He added: ‘Now the presumption is that people don’t wear gloves or protective clothing. For us to pass the recommended EU risk assessments, we have to either scale back the active ingredients, which will affect the product’s performance, or provide proof of careful use.’

Read more at The future of DIY antifouling: it’s apparently in your gloves - Practical Boat Owner

EU laws certainly are biased to the biggest idiot they can find. They then legislate assuming everybody is the same.

Maybe it's time to put some effort into non chemical means of anti fouling. Ultrasonic is one option which has promise.

Time to disrupt the existing anti fouling industry. It will take investment and a decent large scale R&D program involving academia and the marine electronics industry.

Organisations like DARPA, DSTO and NASA used to kickstart the 1-3 TRL (technology readiness level) research needed to build new solutions.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by leftbrainstuff

Maybe it's time to put some effort into non chemical means of anti fouling.

Right. Because the paint manufacturers have been sitting on their hands on this issue. And until metal-based anti fouling paints are made illegal, non-toxic coatings will never become popular, because they are so much less effective than current, metal-based paints.

Originally Posted by leftbrainstuff

Ultrasonic is one option which has promise.

Except it doesn't work, despite decades of research and use.

I think you are dreaming if you think the paint manufacturers (or anyone) are going to put any significant amount of time or money into developing anti fouling products specifically for the boat owner to apply. I suspect that the paint manufacturers would be perfectly happy if only professionals were allowed to apply their products.

[Ribbit]

When unscientific studies are loaded with presumptions and assumptions (I have lost count of the number of times I have read "It is reasonable to assume" in such fraudulent studies), along with an absence of facts (if 'facts' are given, very often any data level is so small and irrelevant that it is lost in the error bars, and you have to wonder if there was any actual signal in the signal to noise ratio at all), it's usually because large sums of money have been paid to acquire a monopoly of supply and/or services.

It certainly isn't 'science' but the likes of the EU 'Technocrat' just love this lucrative (for them and whoever is paying them) nonsense.

[Bulawayo]

x2 - see you there!!

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Same old EU BS.

No problem. I will paint in Morocco, much nice climate there.

b.

[George DuBose]

I wish the whole EU nanny state mentality will cause the EU to crash and burn.

I "heard" that The Netherlands banned copper in antifouling paint until they discovered that 95% of the copper that they were finding in their waters was coming from local industries.

E-Paint a zinc based paint from the US used by the US Navy and the USCG cannot be sold in the EU until the firm pays several million euros for certification.

Seems to me that the treehuggers in the EU would welcome this product in the EU. I guess it goes against their fears of foreign competition.

Brussels seems to continually come up with laws concerning boating made by bureaucrats who never even saw a boat. They made a law that seacocks must be changed every five years, since they were allowing builders to use brass in the seacocks. My all-bronze seacocks are 38 years old and look and function like new. Baaaahh.

Personally, I do use a fine dust mask, goggles, a paper suit and gloves combined with a vacuum for collection of the antifouling dust, put drop clothes on the ground and when washing the bottom at haulout, we do it over a collection basin.

What's the beef???

[Bulawayo]

That is the issue, George, you use use your initiative; naughty man. Have you a certificate to do this? Doubtful unless you pay hundreds/thousands of Euro's to be certified by someone that doesnt know a paint brush from a roller. The EU shall keep legislatiing and legislating - self perpetuating jobs for the boys. It shall be interesting to see how UK votes in June. If the Brexit vote succeeds how long shall the Boys from Brussels last?

Originally Posted by George DuBose

I wish the whole EU nanny state mentality will cause the EU to crash and burn.

I "heard" that The Netherlands banned copper in antifouling paint until they discovered that 95% of the copper that they were finding in their waters was coming from local industries.

E-Paint a zinc based paint from the US used by the US Navy and the USCG cannot be sold in the EU until the firm pays several million euros for certification.

Seems to me that the treehuggers in the EU would welcome this product in the EU. I guess it goes against their fears of foreign competition.

Brussels seems to continually come up with laws concerning boating made by bureaucrats who never even saw a boat. They made a law that seacocks must be changed every five years, since they were allowing builders to use brass in the seacocks. My all-bronze seacocks are 38 years old and look and function like new. Baaaahh.

Personally, I do use a fine dust mask, goggles, a paper suit and gloves combined with a vacuum for collection of the antifouling dust, put drop clothes on the ground and when washing the bottom at haulout, we do it over a collection basin.

What's the beef???

[w1651]

IMHO this isn't about safety at all. It's about having your bottom rubbed and carressed by the appropriate licensed officials and or companies. It's all about the money. The state makes less if you do it yourself so no more doing it yourself.

[Mithril Bham]

Holy Mackerel! I thought it was bad in the US. What ever happened to reasonable precaution?

[Bulawayo]

Yup ....but gift wrapped as HSE/environment. Its just like cancer - eventually it shall undo our lives. Reminds me of The Matrix.

Originally Posted by w1651

IMHO this isn't about safety at all. It's about having your bottom rubbed and carressed by the appropriate licensed officials and or companies. It's all about the money. The state makes less if you do it yourself so no more doing it yourself.