Taking The Stink Out Of Paint

You can’t stand the powder blue walls in the bathroom of your new house. Or maybe that food fight was a little too hard on your white kitchen walls. Either way, you know what you have to do: it’s time to paint.

But before you start looking for that vibrant fuchsia hue or perfect shade of white, you might want to think about how that noxious paint affects your health.

Most paints contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon compounds with high vapour pressure and low water solubility, and many are man-made. VOCs contribute to smog and to Sick Building Syndrome.

Exposure to VOCs can lead to a vast range of health problems including eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, nausea, loss of coordination and kidney or liver damage. These adverse health effects vary from person to person, as well as on the concentration of VOCs in the air, the length of exposure, and pre-existing medical conditions.

Most VOCs are released while the paint is drying, says the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Paint dries completely in about three days if the temperature and humidity is moderate, but it will take longer to dry if the temperature is high or low or if humidity levels are high. Since VOCs feed smog, humid summer months can be the worst time to paint.

According to the EPA, kids and people with breathing problems should avoid paint vapours, and pregnant women should not take on any painting projects and should avoid spending much time in freshly painted rooms.

If children and pregnant women are cautioned against spending time in spaces with high VOC leves, why should anyone be exposed to the harmful gasses?

There are, thankfully, other options. Good quality low-VOC and no-VOC paints have emerged as the “green” alternative to harmful VOC-laden paints.

But low- or no-VOC isn’t always the most eco-friendly and health-conscious choice. The EPA examined four low- or no-VOC paint brands in 1998 and found formaldehyde, a probable carcinogen, in two of the paints. The paint with the highest formaldehyde emission levels was examined more closely, and the source of the noxious gas was attributed to a biocide added to the paint to prevent mold. The take-away lesson: low- or no-VOC paint is not necessarily low- or no-emission paint.

Since many companies do not provide stores with detailed product information, the EPA recommends consumers contact manufacturers to ensure that paints are emission-free.

Another alternative is naturally derived paints, but like most things labelled “all-natural” these days, it’s not necessarily the healthiest. Naturally-occurring VOCs are found in some natural paints, so be sure to ask if the natural paint you’re thinking of buying is emission-free.

If you’re looking to eliminate VOCs and other harmful gasses from your home, there are two eco-friendly, but higher maintenance, options: milk paints and whitewashes. Milk paints are made with milk proteins, earth pigments, lime, and clay, and they’re free of solvents. The downside is you’ll probably have to paint more often because milkpaint is quite porous and stains easily. Whitewashes are made with lime paste, water, and salt, and they work best on plaster, cement, or stucco walls.

Whether you opt for a low- or no-VOC paint or one of the less toxic alternatives, there’s no reason to continue using highly toxic paints full of VOCs.

But if you are sticking with a traditional paint, take a few precautions. Make sure the room you’re painting is well ventilated by opening windows and using fans to circulate the air, but block heating vents to prevent the gasses from spreading to other areas of your home. And most importantly, consider ways you can minimize exposure to paint fumes while you are painting, such as donning a particulate-filtering mask.

More on an eco-friendly House & Home from Naturally Savvy