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EPA settles clean air emissions case with Las Vegas wood furniture manufacturing company

Release Date: 9/22/2003
Contact Information: Laura Gentile, Press Office, 415/947-4227

Capital manufactures kitchen and bathroom cabinets, using spray booths to apply sealers, top coats, paints and contact adhesives. The materials used in the spray booths contain VOCs and hazardous air pollutants that are vented directly to the atmosphere

When Capital built its plant in 1983 and later modified it in the late 1980s, the Clean Air required that it have emission controls and offsets for VOCs. The EPA alleges that no such control and offsets were in place.

Additionally, the company allegedly failed to report toluene releases to EPA in 1996, a violation of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

The EPA issued a notice of violation to Capital Cabinet for these violations in July 2000.

This settlement requires Capital to limit its VOC emissions to 25 tons per year, which is a reduction of about 50 tons per year from previous emissions. The company must also comply with the EPA = s standard for hazardous air pollutants for wood furniture manufacturing operations.

VOCs are precursors to ground-level ozone - or smog - formation. Exposure to even low levels of ozone can cause respiratory problems such as a reduction in lung function, chest pain, and cough. Repeated exposure can make people more susceptible to respiratory infection and lung inflamation and can aggravate pre-existing respiratory diseases.

Children are most at risk from ozone exposure because they are active outside playing and during summertime when ozone levels are at their highest. The elderly and those with respiratory diseases such as asthma are also at high risk.

Capital was founded in 1946 and was privately held until last July when it was purchased by Fortune Brands = MasterBrand Cabinets, Inc. Capital provides kitchen and bathroom cabinets to the building industry in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

For more information on the Emergency Planning and Right to Know Act, visit:https://yosemite.epa.gov/oswer/ceppoweb.nsf/content/index.html

For more information on the Clean Air Act, visit:

https://www.epa.gov/oar/oaqps/peg_caa/pegcaain.html