View Single Post
Old 17-07-2018, 09:54 PM   #6
thomashl_99
Dragon
 
thomashl_99's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 738
Default

Toxic Truth #3
Testing shows that VOC content doesn’t exactly correlate to VOC emissions. (We know – it’s confusing.) The “Paint Volatile Organic Compound Emissions and Volatile Organic Compound Content Comparison Study” conducted by the Underwriter’s Laboratory found that oftentimes paints with less VOC content had more VOC emissions and vice versa. There was no way to predict from what was in the paint, what mind end up in the air.

According to the study, “the results demonstrate that paint VOC content should not be used as a proxy for paint VOC emissions into indoor air, as there is no correlation between the two measures. These results demonstrate that low VOC content is not necessarily indicative of acceptable VOC emissions for specific compounds with known health impacts. Thus, building designers, owners and operators, or occupants may be provided a false sense of security regarding the quality of the indoor air.”

What can you do?
Given the fact that most companies have taken advantage of the lack of oversight and regulation and perpetuate marketing messages that blur the truth, you really need to do your research before buying any paint.

For both the paint and the color tint, ask the manufacturer for the MSDS (or get it off the web), which should identify the ingredients, so you can identify any of concern that may not fall under federal VOC regulations.
thomashl_99 is offline   Reply With Quote