Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 4, 2008
Clearing the Air
By Eric E. Harrison
Even though fall is here, Arkansas’ weathercasters may still be issuing ozone alerts and listing outdoor aerial allergens like pollen and mold that often make people sneeze, wheeze or gasp. But the air inside your home or office may be as much or more of a threat to health.
The Environmental Protection Agency lists indoor air as one of the top five leading health risks in the United States. And among the leading causes of indoor air pollution are volatile organic compounds — VOCs. VOCs can cause shortterm adverse health effects including allergies and asthma attacks, respiratory and / or eye irritation, nausea, dizziness and headaches. Prolonged exposure has been linked to kidney and liver disease and cancer. According to the EPA (www. epa. gov / iaq / voc. html ), aromatic solvents such as benzene and toluene, vinyl chloride, naphthalene, esters, heavy metals (including antimony, cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury ), ketones and formaldehyde lurk in thousands of household products including: Paints, lacquers and paint strippers Motor fuels Cleaning supplies and disinfectants Pesticides Building materials and furnishings Office equipment and supplies including copiers and printers, correction fluids and carbonless copy paper Graphics and craft materials including glues, adhesives and permanent markers. All of these can release organic compounds while you use them, and, to some degree, when they are stored. And, the EPA advises, elevated concentrations can persist in the air long after you’ve scrubbed the sink or put a fresh coat of paint on the wall.
ADVANCES IN CHEMISTRY Until recently, if you bought paint, you bought paint with VOCs because they were essential to the product’s performance. VOCs thin and bind the solid content and pigments and help latex resins flow together so the coating applies smoothly and evenly. That helps hide brush strokes and maintains a desirable durability, among other benefits.
Over the past few years, however, advances in coating chemistry have made alternative paints with few or no VOCs nearly comparable in performance and price.
Most manufacturers — including Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Dutch Boy, Olympic and PPG — now produce one or more variety of less toxic paint: “Low Odor” or “Low VOC” paints Socalled “Zero VOC” paints Nontoxic or natural paints.
The Center for a New American Dream (www. newdream. org ), a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to help Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance quality of life, and promote social justice,” notes approvingly that new “Low VOC” and “Zero VOC” paints and finishes are “durable, cost-effective and less harmful to human and environmental health.” They’re water-based, which means easy cleanup with soap and warm water, and they produce little or no hazardous fumes with little or no “off-gassing.” Green Seal, an independent nonprofit that sets standards for environmentally responsible products, has established voluntary standards more stringent than those of the EPA for VOC content in paints. Whatever paint you buy should have the Green Seal “mark of environmental responsibility” or state that it meets Green Seal Standard GS-11, says Bob Formisano, writing for New York Times-owned Web source About. com (homerepair. about. com ). The EPA allows levels of 250 grams per liter (g / l ) for interior flat paint, while Green Seal allows only 50 (g / l ) of chemicals, Formisano notes.
WATER VS. PETROLEUM Low VOC paints use water as a carrier instead of petroleumbased solvents and have no or very low levels of heavy metals and formaldehyde.
The industry uses the terms Low Odor or Low VOC to describe VOC content that meets the EPA standard of 250 g / l for latex paints or 380 g / l for oilbased paint, Formisano notes. But a manufacturer may label paint Low VOC if it significantly exceeds those standards.
For example, in a Green Seal certified paint, the maximum VOC content will be 50 g / l for flat paint or 150 g / l for other paint. Formisano recommends you look for a VOC range of 10-25 g / l.
However, Formisano says there is no clear mandatory standard for what constitutes a Low VOC or Zero VOC paint, and that “just like a lot of other ‘organic’ marketing going on with our milk and foods, some companies use Low VOC or No VOC paint as a marketing term. “ Further, because these terms are confusing, a lot of store clerks may improperly inform you as to the actual VOC status of a paint. It will ultimately be up to you to read the labels on the can.” NOT QUITE ZERO A Zero VOC or No VOC paint will still have some VOCs, but at very low levels. Usually paints marketed with these labels will have VOCs under 5 g / l, Formisano says. “Even when adding in pigment at the paint store, which can add 2 to 5 g / l of VOC, the total VOC content for the mixed paint should be under 10 g / l, which is excellent. This low level of VOC content paint is as good as it’s going to get with the larger paint companies.” Jim Wawak, who manages a Sherwin-Williams store in west Little Rock, says Sherwin-Williams (www. sherwin. com ) has had its line of Harmony Zero VOC low-odor latex interior paints on shelves for about 10 years, but until recently they didn’t sell.
“They’re a lot more popular now,” he says. “They’re among our better sellers. The public is trying to be more green, have less of a carbon footprint.” The paint is available in flat, eggshell and semigloss — ranging in price from $ 38. 99 to $ 43. 99 per gallon — and also in a latex primer version.
Wawek says his store also sells two Low VOC interior paints called Duration Home and Progreen.
David Mannon, owner of Markham Street Paint, also in west Little Rock, a Benjamin Moore outlet, says the company’s new Zero VOC Aura line, which came out in February, sells for $ 54. 95 a gallon, about 20 percent higher than the company’s other paints. It’s designed to be selfpriming, dries in two hours and recoats in an hour.
“It’s actually a really good product, and really popular,” he says.
Freshaire Choice, the only line of Zero VOC paint at Home Depot, costs between $ 33 and $ 39 a gallon, depending on finish, about $ 10 more than its Behr paint lines and as much as $ 20 more than its Glidden lines.
Green Seal has certified these companies for products that meet or exceed the GS-11 standard: Benjamin Moore: Eco-Spec Interior (since replaced by Aura ) Cloverdale Paint: Horizon Interior Dutch Boy: Clarity Interior Latex MAB Paints: Enviro-Pure Interior Latex Zero VOC HealthyHome. com: Healthy-Hues Interior Latex Miller Paint Co.: Acro Solvent Free Interior Acrylic Olympic Paint and Stain: Zero VOC Olympic Premium Interior PPG Architectural Finishes Inc.: Pittsburgh Paints Pure Performance Rodda Paint Co.: Horizon Interior Southern Diversified Products: American Pride, American Pro Vista Paint: Carefree Earth Coat YOLO Colorhouse: YOLO Interior NATURAL INGREDIENTS For lower VOC content than that, Formisano says, “you’ll need to use more expensive and less readily available nontoxic or natural paints” made from raw ingredients — water, plant oils and resins, plant dyes and essential oils; minerals such as clay, chalk and talcum; milk casein; natural latex; beeswax, and earth and mineral dyes. “These paints will be harder to find and you may have to order them online,” he adds. “And although they are environmentally friendly and healthy, you may experience some performance difference in the way the paint covers — or doesn’t — and flows off the brush. Just be aware that these paints don’t all act like the mass-produced paints to which we’ve become accustomed.” Between Formisano and the Center for a New American Dream, here is a list of natural paint manufacturers with online prices where available: Livos (www. livos. us )
The Real Milk Paint Co. (www. realmilkpaint. com ) — available online, $ 46 a bag, mix with water Aglaia (www. aglaiapaint. com ) EcoDesign’s BioShield (www. bioshieldpaint. com ) — available online, about $ 35 a gallon for solvent-free wall paint to $ 42 a gallon for clay-based paints Weather-Bos (www. weath erbos. com ) — available online, $ 39. 95 a gallon, price breaks for five gallons or more SoyGuard (www. soyguard. com ) — wood-protection products including stains and sealers Silacote (www. silacote. com ) — mineral silicate paints for concrete and masonry Anna Sova (www. annasova. com— made with “food-grade ingredients,” $ 59- $ 69 a gallon Green Planet Paints (www. greenplanetpaints. com ) — clay-based paints, $ 31 a gallon Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co. (www. milkpaint. com ) — about $ 45 a gallon CONTENT VS. EMISSIONS It’s not enough, however, to simply count the amount of VOCs in your can of paint, according to the Greenguard Environmental Institute. Greenguard makes a distinction between VOC content — the amount (by weight ) of VOCs that are in the formulation of paint — and VOC emissions, the amount of VOCs released into the air following the application of paint. “The difference between the two is important because VOC content does not determine what is released into the air of buildings with painted surfaces,” the institute says. The institute notes that “even paint with ‘low or zero’ VOC content may still emit levels of VOCs found to be irritating and unacceptable to people indoors.” Greenguard tests, certifies and marks paints and coatings for low indoor chemical emissions and provides a free online guide to those products at its Web site, www. greenguard. org.
NEWER ALTERNATIVES Coming on the market is an even newer Low VOC alternative: ceramic paint from O’Leary Paint (www. olearypaint. com ) which uses microscopic ceramic beads as a key component of the paint film. And Dutch Boy (www. dutchboy. com / refresh ) is no longer content with just putting out a Zero VOC paint with no paint odor. The company claims its new Refresh latex paint “removes odors from the air using unique Arm & Hammer odoreliminating technology.” The paint, which the company says is Greenguard certified and has a mildew-resistant coating, will soon be available nationwide, starting at $ 23 per gallon. Coming next week The Master Gardener program celebrates its 20 th anniversary.