Int. No. 164

By Council Members Yassky, Gerson, Felder, Brewer and Martinez

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to prohibiting the application of moisture cured urethane in dwellings.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

                     Section one.  Section 24-148 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended to read as follows:

§24-148 Architectural coatings; solvents.

(a)  Definitions.  For the purpose of this section, the following terms shall

mean:

1.  “Common area” shall mean any portion of a dwelling that is generally

accessible to all occupants, including, but not limited to, a public hall, stair, lobby, or

window.

2. “Dwelling” shall mean any building occupied in whole or in part as the

temporary or permanent home or residence of one or more families.

3.  “Dwelling unit” shall mean one or more rooms in a dwelling or building that

are arranged, designed, used, or intended for use by one or more families.

4.  “Moisture cured urethane” shall mean a solvent-base polyurethane used as a

finish on wood floors that contains substances including, but not limited to, aromatic

hydrocarbons, toluene, xylene, or benzene and that dries by pulling moisture from the air.

(b)  No person shall apply moisture cured urethane for painting, finishing, or

refurbishing on any floor or other surface in any dwelling unit or common area that is

occupied or will be occupied within two weeks of such application.

(c) After July first, nineteen hundred seventy-two, no person shall sell, offer for

sale, apply, evaporate, dry, dilute or thin any architectural coating containing a

photochemically reactive solvent.

           [(b)] (d) For the purposes of this section, a photochemically reactive solvent is any

solvent with an aggregate of more than twenty percent of its total volume composed of

the chemical compounds classified below or which exceeds any of the following

individual percentage composition limitations, referred to the total volume of solvent:

1.                     A combination of hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ethers or ketones

having an olefinic or cyclo-olefinic type of unsaturation: five percent;

     2.   A combination of aromatic compounds with eight or more carbon atoms to the

molecule except ethylbenzene: eight percent;

     3.   A combination of ethylbenzene, ketones having branched hydrocarbon structures,

or toluene: twenty percent.

§2.  This local law shall take effect immediately upon its enactment to law.