How Paint Pollution is Hurting our Environment?

Who doesn’t love the idea of doing a home makeover right? Hiring Calgary painters to give your house a new exterior look, getting an interior designer to create a visually appealing interior and so forth. However, the Environmental Protection Agency of the US classified that paint as being among the top 5 most hazardous and harmful substances.

Everything about Paint

Standard household paints are actually a mixture of toxic chemicals. Generally, it includes pigment or what gives its color and carried by a binder and/or resin. A solvent is also used in helping better paint application and dryer too. In acrylic and vinyl paints, they include plastic compounds too. Some do include arsenic, foamers, thinners and formaldehyde.

Negative Impact of Paint

We all love paint and every year, average Americans buy around 300L of it. But not many are aware of the possible harm that it is capable of doing.

As a matter of fact, the high or prolonged exposure to paint as well as its fumes is enough to cause the following:

  • Trigger allergic reactions
  • Cause asthma
  • Headaches
  • Eye, airway and skin irritation

On top of that, it can put more stress on the vital organs like heart. WHO or World Health Organization reported a 20 to 40 percent increase of getting cancer, especially lung cancer for those who have regular contacts with paint or working with paint.

Off Gassing

While it is true that taking preventive measures while painting like ensuring that there’s enough ventilation in the area and wearing masks, this won’t essentially stops your problem. Truth is, there’s a growing issue among environmentalists regarding off gassing or the process in which chemicals are continuously releasing volatile toxins to the atmosphere even after its application.

VOC

VOC is an abbreviation for Volatile Organic Compounds. By the time when paint is applied, the levels of VOC gives off 1000x higher compared to ones that are found outdoors. Throughout the lifetime of paint on your walls, this will continuously release chemicals as invisible paint pollution.

This is the exact same reason why you should only hire and work with professional painters as they know the appropriate actions to minimize this.

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