Greeneroo

During the curing and evaporating process, paints release their solvents in the atmosphere. Not only does this smell bad, but these VOC make some people sick, contribute to allergies and add to smog and climate change!! The release of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) into the atmosphere, is a big deal, and the debate goes on with many contractors refusing to use them because they don’t cover as well as regular paint. On the one hand, there is great improvement in these paints in the last decade AND there is also much more information and access available. So don’t decide, “no” just because you may have heard some complaints and concerns.  Evaluate the current low VOC paints in regard to coverage, endurance and performance and I think you will be switch over.

And remember that VOCs are linked to dizziness, and asthma, and allergies.

TRY water based Latex Paints, with an acrylic resin acting as a binder. They are environmentally friendly – Water based means no more VOCs.  Latex paints have several other advantages over traditional paints, such as washability and coverage.

“Green Paint” refers to the effects of the paint itself AND also the manufacturing process that is followed in order to obtain the paint ingredients. Ingredients like Titanium Dioxide are used in paints for whiteness, and for it’s ability to cover scuffs, marks, maybe even crayon. It provides a greater opacity when it is disbursed in a solvent.

Sounds good… but Titanium Dioxide is manufactured using a sulphate and chloride process where diluted Sulphuric acid is created as a by-product.  -Especially not good for our rivers, oceans, waters.
Titanium Dioxide as an exterior coating, reacts with sunlight causing smog. The International Agency for research on Cancer (IARC), has also classified Titanium Dioxide as an IARC Group 2B carcinogen, which means that it is probably an agent leading to the promotion of cancer in humans. So BEWARE, Titanium Dioxide is widely used. Eco Friendly paints have a major POSITIVE impact on the industry helping us see our choices and how we impact many natural systems including ourselves.

A LOW VOC paint is to be sold at Home Depot and it is lower in cost than most others. Freshaire Choice helps us keep our “inside air” cleaner, considering that the air INSIDE our homes is full of pollutants, doing research on low VOC paint is important. There are many brands and Consumer Reports evaluates the key differences every year, this particular brand is lower in cost.