COLDWATER, Ohio. Oct. 26, 2006 -- Ever wondered how you will survive if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces tougher regulations on printers? If so, Mercer Color Corporation is pleased to announce their Ecologically Controlled Offset Printing, or more simply ECOLITH meets and exceeds the South Coast and Bay Area Air Quality Management District regulations, two of the most stringent policies in the United States. “As technology and demands change the way the printing industry does business, we believe it’s important to have the resources to change and adapt right along with it,” said Pat Berger, vice president of Mercer Color Corporation. “We wanted to be ahead of the curve and that’s why we pioneered ECOLITH, a process that has minute VOC’s, Zero HAP’s, Zero 313’s and Zero Acetone. ECOLITH has 1 twelfth of the allowable amount of VOC’s per the new EPA CTG for Lithographic and Letterpress printing.” The ECOLITH printing process was developed through extensive testing, reformulation and development of vegetable based inks, fountain solutions and wash-up solutions, ensuring that each of these materials in combination are the most beneficial to the environment and still deliver the ability to produce the best possible print results. ECOLITH has been perfected for sheetfed presses, but with a few minor adjustments it could be used on web presses too. “Mercer Color has always believed using eco-responsible pressroom chemistry is the right thing to do,” said Berger. “It’s the right thing to do because the health and safety of our employees and customers depend on it. We’ve always felt strongly about limiting, reducing and eliminating their exposure to harmful and regulated chemicals such as the Federal SARA 313 Toxic Release Chemical List and HAPS List.” The ECOLITH printing process encompasses ink, fountain solution, metering roller cleaner, roller cleaning paste, blanket-roller-wash-general cleaning, filters and training. It is essentially odor free and emits very little fumes when run through a laser printer.