toxic paint low VOC

PaintBird

Can you imagine if we didn't have laws governing car emissions? We'd all be dead by now! Tata in India would have killed us...

Can you imagine if tap water didn't have all the regulations it has what you'd be drinking?

Can you imagine if there wasn't a law to keep rivers clean, what rivers would contain? Look at China to get a sense of what pollution can do to a country.

I'm not in favor of laws in general except when they benefit the general public. How can you possibly say that healthier paint is a bad thing?

What about smoking? Should we have allowed smoking at workplaces and public places?

Healthier homes are definitely a good thing. Paint, Cabinets, flooring, drywall are things that should emit little cr*p as possible. You can build a healthy home but you have to spend a bazillion dollars to do it.

When you get the big C and one of us on this thread unfortunately will, you might change your tune...

M3 Pete

some people claim it's more than just a clean smell.

http://johnthomaspainting.com/blog/hello-world/

mikegp

Paint off gases for a month or more after it dries. VOC's probably will not affect most people, but if you have a pregnant woman or young child in your home it could be an issue. I wouldn't be surprised if a link was found between many things in our homes and autism/other developmental disorders. New car smell probably isn't great for small children either.

Startingover

thanks mike. I have a relative, visiting often, with a lot of allergies.

sdsester

You know folks if you google, dried paint doesn't even make it to most household lists of things that outgas VOCs to the indoor environment. What does? Cosmetics, nail polish and nail polish remover, hair spray, pine and citrus cleaner, AC system refrigerants, furniture and drapery fabrics and the dyes in them and treatment for spills and fire proofing on them, household insectisides, insulation materials, plastics and vinyls (like laminiate flooring) and get this---the solvents from dry cleaned clothes are really nasty. You should really leave yours outside!!!

I am not saying using low VOC paints is not a great idea but before you get all paranoid about dried paint look at all the other crap in your home outgassing horrible stuff. Last thing I would worry about is dried paint. Sure, apply the low VOC stuff if worried about what it does while it dries.

Just a suggestion? Make sure your home is well ventilated. The downside to wrapping homes in Tyvek and make them air tight from an insulation is we make the interiors sick. Even cars have flow through ventilation that is not yet designed into as many homes as it should be.

Will22

As stated, there are adhesives, flooring material, and household cleaners, as well as contamination from poor ventilation which causes more problems than paint. Paint does outgas during curing. There are people with sensitivities to odors, including paint, which may aggravate their allergies or respiratory difficulties.As stated previously, virtually all latex paints sold in the US have low-VOC's. The no-VOC products for the most part are premium products.

mustangmike3789

We're so self-important. So arrogant. Everybody's going to save something now. Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save the snails. And the supreme arrogance? Save the planet! Are these people kidding? Save the planet? We don't even know how to take care of ourselves; we haven't learned how to care for one another. We're gonna save the f#@& planet? . . . And, by the way, there's nothing wrong with the planet in the first place. The planet is fine. The people are f@%D! Compared with the people, the planet is doin' great. It's been here over four billion years . . . The planet isn't goin' anywhere, folks. We are! We're goin' away. Pack your s#@#, we're goin' away. And we won't leave much of a trace. Thank God for that. Nothing left. Maybe a little Styrofoam. The planet will be here, and we'll be gone. Another failed mutation; another closed-end biological mistake.”
― George Carlin

sdsester

Wrote an editorial years ago still googleable about how this planet will repair itself, with or without us. In the grand scheme of things we have occupied it for a very short period of time. The way we are taking care of it, if it were alive, it would probably just stop spinning for an hour and send us into a total situation we could not comprehend. We are making in increasingly difficult for us to live on it but that is our own fault. "It" doesn't care whether we battle about evolution or creationism. It doesn't really care if we believe in global warming as created by us or not. It doesn't care if we blow each other up in the name of whatever---country, religion come to mind. It will survive and maybe allow the species beyond us to thrive. Hopefully they will have a better sense of humor and get along better.