Article: Paint your home healthy

Tuesday June 2, 2009

By MICHAEL CHEANG

Beware what you paint your walls with for it might make you sick.

DO you love the fresh, intoxicating smell of a newly painted wall? Well, you better think twice about sniffing it. That scent actually comes from the evaporation of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from the paint, and is not only damaging to your health, but is also hazardous to the environment.

VOCs are organic solvents used in standard paint formulations to bind colourants and pigments so that the paint stays, even with scrubbing and washing. When paint dries, VOCs evaporate and dissipate into the air, producing that fresh paint smell and along with it, a form of air pollutant that is akin to cigarette smoke, carbon gas and even vehicle exhaust fumes.

Some common VOCs used in paint as solvents and preservatives include formaldehyde and benzene while pigment chemicals can include cadmium and chromium. Besides VOCs, hazardous materials such as lead and mercury can also be found in paint.

All these chemicals are hazardous to the environment – they can damage soil and groundwater, as well as contribute to indoor and outdoor air pollution. They can also trigger asthma attacks, irritate the eye and throat, and cause nausea and headaches. Long-term exposure can even lead to cancer and diseases of the kidney and liver.

Not a pretty picture: Painting your home with paint that contains volatile organic compounds is not only a health hazard but also harmful to the environment.

Gladys Goh, assistant general manager of marketing at Nippon Paint, says many people take paint for granted, and think that the smell of the paint indicates its quality.

"Our research here found that most people liked the smell of paint. In fact, the VOC that causes the smell is a component that is not needed in paint. We came up with a way to vacuum up the VOCs during manufacturing without compromising the quality of the paint," says Goh, adding that most paints these days are already devoid of lead and mercury, but not VOCs.

"In Europe, there are standards. All paints must have 50g or less VOCs in them. Right now, normal water-based paints can have more than 50g but for solvent, oil-based paints, it can be 200g or more, and even up to 400 to 500g.

"Paint is used in large volumes when constructing a building and can release air pollutants that affect the indoor air quality of your building. When you use paint with low or no VOC, it complies with the parameters of indoor air quality," said Goh.

The use of eco-friendly paints is one of the criterion for buildings to be certified under the recently launched Green Building Index (GBI). Architect Dr Tan Loke Mun says buildings using paints with zero or low VOC paints will get credit points when assessed under the GBI.

For contractor Lincoln Lee, paints must be long-lasting. "Some companies may claim their paint is eco-friendly or chemical-free but to me, it's useless if it doesn't last and you have to repaint after a while," he says, adding that he emphasises long-lasting and sustainable methods over short-term "green" solutions for his buildings. But if there is a paint that has long-lasting qualities and is free of hazardous chemicals, he would consider using it.

While the awareness in Europe is high enough for Nippon to market their VOC-free paint as a "green paint", the same cannot be said about the less environmentally aware Malaysians, who generally do not ask for VOC-free paint. So instead of promoting the eco-friendliness of the paint, Nippon markets it as "odourless".

This range of paints have almost zero VOC content and was launched here in 2006. Nippon currently has two VOC-free paints in the market, both water-based.

According to Goh, getting VOCs out of water-based paints is fairly easy but it is tricky for solvent-based paints. These are the paints typically used on metal or wood surfaces, as the oil inside the paint keeps moisture out.

'Our research here found th at most people liked the smell of paint ,' says Gladys Goh of Nippon Paint.

"With solvent-based paints, the VOC comes from the solvent itself. We have to find a way to convert it to water-based, or find an ingredient that can match the qualities of solvent paints before we can make it VOC-free," she adds. "As for the rest of our paints, most of them already contain less than 50g of VOCs, and we are in the process of phasing out those that have a higher VOC content."

Although the VOC-free paint is about 15 to 20% more expensive than normal paints, Goh is confident that eco-friendly paints will become the norm.

And how would the average consumer know whether a paint is VOC-free? Unfortunately, there is no easy way to tell as most paints in the market do not have labels stating their VOC levels, unless the product is marketed specifically as being low-VOC or VOC-free. This is because there are no Government regulations that require the labelling of VOC levels in paints at present.

The only way you can find out the VOC levels in a paint right now is to call up the paint manufacturer (or check its website) for a technical datasheet on the specifics of the product.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Go Green Live Green 2 June 2009