Don’t Spray Paint Anything! Here’s Why…

We talk extensively about why you shouldn’t spray paint on our website and we compare spray painting to powder coating. We are powder coaters so you’d think that we would naturally prefer powder coating to spray painting. But, we chose this industry for three really important reasons: First and foremost, powder coating is safe and NOT TOXIC; Second, it is less expensive than spray painting; and third, it really is the best way to refinish a bike, fence, gate, patio table/chairs, barbecue grills, and cars because it looks better and last 10-20x longer.

 

What’s a VOC and How Can It Harm Me and My Children?

Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. VOCs include a wide variety of chemicals, some of which may have short and long term adverse health effects.

Concentrations of many VOCs are consistently higher indoors (up to ten times higher) than outdoors. VOCs are emitted by a wide array of products numbering in the thousands. Examples include: paint and lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, building materials and furnishings, office equipment such as copiers and printers, correction fluid and carbonless copy paper, graphics and craft materials including glues and adhesives, permanent markers, and photographic solutions.

The elimination of VOC's by paint manufactures does not address the issue of why contaminants not considered VOC's still find their way into paint. For example; some paints contain ammonia and acetone which are highly dangerous chemicals to human health yet they are not required by law to appear on the label.

Since each individual’s immune system is different, it is hard to determine how much exposure to paint fumes it takes to have damaging effects. In most cases, it takes years of exposure to affect the brain. But in some rare instances, only one exposure to paint fumes has left impairment – all of which is dependent, of course, on the level of exposure, health of the individual, and the solvents to which the individual was exposed.

Solvent emissions in a gallon of paint are about 90% less than what they were 25 years ago. However, most paints still contain harmful fumes if inhaled or absorbed. In fact, most of us are unaware of the effects that one coat of paint may have. Low levels of vapors from either formaldehyde, benzene, butane, propane, and fluorinated hydrocarbons found in can or spray paints are released on a daily basis for the first 30 days after application. But even year’s later small amounts of toxic fumes can continue to leak into the air. Over a period of time, exposure to these fumes can be harmful to the brain.

 

VOC’s Can Harm and Injure Unborn Children

According to Highbeam Research, pregnant women who inhale spray paint containing toluene, a solvent commonly found in paints, endanger their unborn children. A study of 16 women who abused spray paint by inhalation during pregnancy found they had infants with a significant number of birth defects. Seventy-five percent of the infants had facial features typical of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. In addition. the children were born small, many were developmentally delayed, and many had kidney problems and poor muscle tone.

According to H. Eugene Hoyme. MD, Chief of Pediatric Genetics at the Steele Memorial Hospital at the University of Arizona, "The pattern of malformations, similar to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, are very striking. Unfortunately, we still cannot specifically tell women how great the risk is if they abuse spray paint with toluene during their pregnancy."