Green Painting, Not Just About VOC
Volatile Organic Compounds or V.O.C. are the latest buzz words in the painting and construction industry. They are harmful solvents found in paints and other construction materials such as carpets, adhesives etc. When VOC evaporate, they react with sunlight and fuel by-products and create smog. Smog is harmful to humans, animal life and plants and is a contributor to the global warming problem.
When the homeowner purchases and the specifier specifies zero or low VOC paint, everything and everyone should be safe right?
No way! There are many more compounds that are harmful, in fact very harmful and they are “VOC exempt”. For example acetone among others is zero VOC and exempt. As a solvent it is very heavy and doesn’t “go up” but it is very harmful and it causes contamination to the ground water. Yet it is allowed to be sold to unsuspecting consumers.
In other words, a zero VOC paint is not a safe paint. Safer maybe, but not safe. To take it even further, Oxhaul is a heavy solvent (9.8 pounds per gallon) and not a VOC. It is used to lower the VOC level of a product and make it more compliant. It likely would not make it safer. High solids hardeners sometimes are zero VOC, but full of isocyanates. So in this case lowering the VOC content makes the product more harmful.
So in the whole scheme of things and the overall discussion of greening our paints, are we back to square one? As the chemical soup gets even more complicated for the end game of compliance and marketing, where does that leave us?
Zero VOC does not mean safe and as always: consumer beware!
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