Site Web Get a free search engine for your site

Color in your home can enhance your sense of well being and create an inviting environment for you and your family. Quite often, the largest source of color in your home is the paint on the walls. Whether you like a neutral environment, splashes of bright color, or just a plain white to calm your senses, paint and other surface finishes constitute a major portion of the space within your home.

While paint can have an enormous effect on the aesthetics of your home, it can also have a negative impact on the health of you and your family because of toxic components that are contained within it. As paint dries, there is a reaction in which chemicals, known as VOC’s, or Volatile Organic Compounds, are emitted. As these VOC’s off-gas, they can cause a variety of health issues and are a cause of interior pollution, which can be many times more hazardous that the pollution in the air outside your home.

According to the EPA, nine percent of the air-borne pollutants creating low-level ozone pollution come from VOC’s in paint. And an EPA study shows that VOC’s are consistently ten times higher indoors than outdoors. That number rises to 1,000 times higher with a fresh coat of paint.

Most large paint companies, such as Benjamin Moore, Glidden, Kelly More and Sherwin-Williams, market zero-VOC, low-VOC, or odor free paints. My experience in trying to buy paints from some of these companies is that you must special order them, so planning ahead is a must. One paint, ICI’s Lifemaster 2000 (available at Dulux), is independently certified as VOC-free.

A national company, American Formulating & Manufacturing (http://www.afmsafecoat.com/) has a line of paints called Safecoat, which have very-low VOC content and are formulated with sealing properties that result in minimal out gassing. They are available in Los Angeles at Par Paint Company, 213.413.4950 and in Venice at Naylor’s Paint, 310.393.7223. AFM also provides a complete range of chemically responsible building and maintenance products.
Another interesting concept is paint made from milk protein, lime, clay, and earth pigments. Offered by The Old-Fashioned Milk Paint Company in Groton, Massachusetts, (http://www.milkpaint.com/), they are using a formula that dates back to Ancient Egypt.

Their web site praises the use of milk paint: Because of the unique durability of Milk Paint, many fine examples still exist that are hundreds of years old and whose finish is just as true as the day the paint was applied. The deep rich colors of our Milk Paint authentically reflect those colors found on existing antique furniture and buildings. Our paint is made in small batches, using earth pigments. Modern paints cannot compare with the colors and the texture of the finish for achieving the “old” or “country look” of Colonial or Shaker furniture and interiors. And, like the paints used hundreds of years ago, the colors in our Milk Paint will not fade. If using Milk Paint, it will show water spots, so a sealant is a must and the company sells a low-VOC clear acrylic product.

My experience has been that low and no-VOC paint is not as easy to buy as regular paint and there is not a lot of expertise in paint and hardware stores on these paints. Most of the information I have gleaned has come from web sites and articles in environmental publications. One publication that I would highly recommend is Natural Home, a bi-monthly magazine that celebrates natural living.

I would welcome your comments and experiences. Please email me at eviecology@aol.com.