Tamiya Spray Banned in Canada?

[guggles 295]

This just popped up on my news feed

Im not sure the validity of the claims but it does seem the importation of all the Tamiya spray cans has been halted. Talk about the paint not allowed to be sold to vendors from distributors. Once the vendors run out of stock that may be the last of it. 

Its a good point to bring up for anyone who gets paint in Canada. Im wondering if the sales in Canada or pending changing regulations in other regions will force Tamiya's hand so to speak to come out with new paint. What do you guys think? Will this change how you play with your models? Also please keep this discussion focused on hobby topics and impacts or I may have to ask it to be closed. Thanks.

[Yoshisaur 283]

Hi,

This seems to be true, Fil called the Tamiya distributor and they confirmed the news: 

 

[Mad Ax 10586]

Wow.  I wonder what the exact reason is, and if it's a simple fix?  IIRC a lot of Tamiya paints (I think TS paints) became unavailable in the EU for a while for labelling issues.  Tamiya reprinted the labels and stock returned again quick enough, but for a while it was hard to get some paints.  If this is a similar problem then maybe Tamiya can resolve it with a Canada-specific label.

I also wonder how many other brands are affected, and if it affects automotive paints too?  I guess there's more to this story that will come out over the next few days or weeks.

I wasn't bothered when I couldn't get TS paints, as I used Halfords automotive paints for hard bodies.  There's a Halfords branch a 5 minute cycle ride from me who kept a huge stock of paint.  Now Halfords have discontinued all their off-the-shelf spray cans, so I either have to order expensive TS paints online or hunt around the local auto stores for some random rattle can brand that's sort of the right colour.

[Gebbly 800]

I stumbled across this video last night, it was a bit of a surprise. The Canadian distributor that Poor Boys RC rang said it was because the level of some chemical (she couldnt say what) in all their aerosols was too high so there is an immediate ban on distributors selling TS, PS and AS Tamiya paints. All non-aerosol paints are fine. Shops can keep selling what stock they have left but they wont get more.

[ChrisRx718 4701]

1 hour ago, Mad Ax said:

Wow.  I wonder what the exact reason is, and if it's a simple fix?  IIRC a lot of Tamiya paints (I think TS paints) became unavailable in the EU for a while for labelling issues.  Tamiya reprinted the labels and stock returned again quick enough, but for a while it was hard to get some paints.  If this is a similar problem then maybe Tamiya can resolve it with a Canada-specific label.

The 2008/9 issue? I heard that was a formulation issue. The sprays contained a controlled chemical and had could no longer be imported - I remember seeing a letter from the UK distributor at the time. It was hard to sell a Tamiya bundle kit and justify a can of 'Carson' or similar paint in lieu. 

This only affected PS paints - the TS range was unaffected. Leading to lots of folks being miss-sold the wrong paint for polycarbonate.  

[alvinlwh 7227]

We had the same in the UK way back in 2007. It was hard times. I actually had to fly to Asia to get my paints. It lasted for 2 or 3 years IIRC. 

 

[Mad Ax 10586]

1 hour ago, Gebbly said:

the level of some chemical n all their aerosols was too high so there is an immediate ban on distributors selling TS, PS and AS Tamiya paints

I wonder if this will be rectified by Tamiya?  Restrictions are only going to get tighter across the world, sooner or later most countries will do the same.

55 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

The 2008/9 issue? I heard that was a formulation issue. The sprays contained a controlled chemical and had could no longer be imported

I don't remember when it was (2008 actually feels like too long ago, but I could be wrong (edit: I was wrong, see above)) but I think when the paints returned they all had extra paper labels stuck to the outside of the shrink wrap.

Edit: I've just been up to my workshop to try to prove this point, but none of my unopened cans (either TS or PS) have any additional paper labels stuck on the shrink wrap, so maybe I dreamt it.

However, a new can of PS-5 that I only bought a few months back has a label stuck to the top of the can, over the shrink wrap.  It's one of those micro-page labels with 3 pages of health warnings, including one about containing a substance suspected of causing cancer.  An opened tin of PS-5 has a small note in the warnings about containing something known to the state of California to cause cancer.

One would imagine that simply saying "this might give you cancer" is no longer enough in some states / countries and will probably spread further unless the formula is changed.

[alvinlwh 7227]

2 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

extra paper labels stuck to the outside of the shrink wrap

 

2 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

micro-page labels with 3 pages of health warnings

Honestly, does anyone read that crap? I mean in an industrial/commercial setting, we have COSHH but in a private home? I mean do you have the COSHH for your Fairy liquid? 

[Mad Ax 10586]

4 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

Honestly, does anyone read that crap? I mean in an industrial/commercial setting, we have COSHH but in a private home? I mean do you have the COSHH for your Fairy liquid? 

Well I think this is the point.  There's a note on there that says "may cause cancer" and none of us read it.  I think we all know (or assume) that the quantities of the chemical required to actually put you at risk of cancer are far higher than you get in the tin, but we don't actually have the data (or any link to the data in the warnings, for that matter) so we are really only guessing, with something as serious as cancer.  Plus we are ignoring the fact that many of us use far more paint in a year than your average RC enthusiast.  Although I seriously doubt that's taking me anywhere near the levels or concentrations required to be at risk of cancer, that is only a guess on my part, and driven mostly by optimism bias.

And of course we are making the assumption that if it really was that dangerous, we wouldn't be allowed to buy it - which is exactly what's happening in Canada.

[Scorchio 212]

Hmm, worrying. Just seen it myself.

I mentioned in a build thread that Allcad 310 has "This product contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer birth defects or other reproductive harm" written on the label, which is probably why you can't buy it here in the UK. It smells considerably worse / more toxic than TS spray, and thats without propellant.

Have Tamiya cans just fallen under the "safety standards" radar for many years in many countries, due to relatively low demand compared to car / furniture spray paints found in hardware stores?

I don't see myself panic buying in the future though (ok maybe a couple of colours perhaps).

[alvinlwh 7227]

35 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

Plus we are ignoring the fact that many of us use far more paint in a year than your average RC enthusiast. 

We also use far, far less paint than a professional 1:1 car painter. So on the RA matrix for chances of it happening, for us, will be a 1 or 2. 

15 minutes ago, Scorchio said:

Allcad 310

Now that stuff is deadly. Even I use a mask with that! 

[markbt73 5850]

Ah yes, the good old California Proposition 65 warnings. They're on almost everything with any sort of solvent in it, including almost everything made of plastic. Personally, I think it's a bit of a "boy who cried wolf" situation; put a warning label on everything, and then when something is really dangerous, everyone ignores the warning.

That said, I only spray paint outside, whether in aerosol cans or from an airbrush, and for anything solvent-based, I wear a mask. Cancer runs in my family anyway, so I figure better safe than sorry.

[guggles 295]

@markbt73 I would also wear a mask for spraying any water based acrylics as well. It might seem safer but I dont think anybody really knows if it is in fact safe or not. 

 

The one thing I think of in comparison to out hobby is nail shops, I think the materials are very similar but the attitudes surrounding the "safety" seems to be much more lax with the nails in my opinion. 

I wonder if any of the nail gels, top coats, polishes or acrylics will get pulled? I could see a lobbying presence which stops these products being treated the way our beloved hobby paints are. 

Either way its a shame our hobby is being impacted in this way. I also heard from a guy I follow online that nitro fuel is being blocked form sale in Canada as well. I guess theres only a few places you can still get it and who knows how long that will be. 

[bRIBEGuy 3378]

Being both in Canada, and a general fan of Tamiya's paints (as long as it's not PS1...), this is certainly not great news as far as I'm concerned.

Ironically I moved away from Tamiya rattle cans for MANY years after falling in love with airbrushing Parma's FasKolor... but when that paint disappeared (and I couldn't find a decent equivalent) I moved back to the Big T's rattle cans.  I guess the funny part of Tamiya's paint ban is that Parma has recently started producing FasKolor again (supposedly... no one up here sells is yet).

Guess I need to take stock of my "To Paint" pile and go look at hitting up the LHS before everyone else raids it.

Strange times...

[MadAnt 300]

Wow! Hopefully the fix is done quick for the Canadian market. I'm in the USA, but I do feel sorry for yall in Canadia.

[alvinlwh 7227]

21 hours ago, bRIBEGuy said:

Ironically I moved away from Tamiya rattle cans for MANY years after falling in love with airbrushing

For me, it was the Tamiya paint crisis of 2007 that made me moved from cans to airbrush. Never looked back since.

[bRIBEGuy 3378]

Well, I just got back from my LHS, and they confirmed the Canadian Tamiya Paint Ban to be 100% legit.  The store received notice on Monday, and for the foreseeable future, there will be no restock.

I picked up a few cans for some upcoming projects, and will likely kick myself in the near future for not getting more...LOL.

Time to find a source for Faskolor and switch back to the airbrush, I guess.

[Superluminal 3896]

The trouble is, that every time a company reformulates a product to suit some poncy "health and safety" or "environmental" legislation it then becomes completely ineffetive or you have to use five times as much of it to achieve the same results, which cant be in any way sustainable. 

There seems to be a number of threads appearing in the last few months of people with paint issues caused by one layer of paint reactivating and staining the previous layer. I wonder if something in the formulation is being changed that stops the paints curing properly. I never heared of it being an issue before.

[svenb 4240]

11 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

 

There seems to be a number of threads appearing in the last few months of people with paint issues caused by one layer of paint reactivating and staining the previous layer. I wonder if something in the formulation is being changed that stops the paints curing properly. I never heared of it being an issue before.

That's a good point, I've noticed the labelling has changed on some of the most recently spray I've bought.Will have a look

[alvinlwh 7227]

25 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

The trouble is, that every time a company reformulates a product to suit some poncy "health and safety" or "environmental" legislation it then becomes completely ineffetive

Which reminded me to make up a shopping list of paint to buy in Asia where these nonsense don't exist. 

[Rinskie 1024]

I moved away from Tamiya paints a long time ago in favor of Createx and Auto Air airbrush paints. Trouble is, both of those products suck now on lexan bodies for what ever reason. The last few bodies I painted with my airbrush have had issues with adhesion. The Tamiya paints are super durable so I just made the switch back to them. I wish there was a good airbrush paint like in the old days but if there is, I don't know about it. 

[guggles 295]

3 hours ago, Rinskie said:

I moved away from Tamiya paints a long time ago in favor of Createx and Auto Air airbrush paints. Trouble is, both of those products suck now on lexan bodies for what ever reason. The last few bodies I painted with my airbrush have had issues with adhesion. The Tamiya paints are super durable so I just made the switch back to them. I wish there was a good airbrush paint like in the old days but if there is, I don't know about it. 

I did some preliminary testing with automotive urethane basecoat and it seems to work really well on lexan, but its expensive and likely less safe than the Tamiya paints. 

[alvinlwh 7227]

7 hours ago, guggles said:

I did some preliminary testing with automotive urethane basecoat and it seems to work really well on lexan, but its expensive and likely less safe than the Tamiya paints. 

A professional painter once suggested using this base coat to me. Not sure if it is the same as the one you used. It is relatively cheap at £8 a large can, works with any paint after except "real" acrylics. 

This example was that primer followed by Mr Color lacquer. 

[1RCdude 5]

Looks like I better buy the kit and the paints I have my eye on.

 

[bRIBEGuy 3378]

15 minutes ago, 1RCdude said:

Looks like I better buy the kit and the paints I have my eye on.

 

Always the safe choice.