Natural paints
Green Buildng Store supplies a wide range of natural paints and timber finishes.
Paints and decorating products present complex safety and environmental issues. Here we discuss some of these in more detail.
What is wrong with ordinary paint?
Ordinary paints are manufactured from a wide range of ingredients synthesised primarily from petro-chemicals.
•
Because many of these substances bear little resemblance to naturally
occurring ones, they are not easily reassimilated into the natural
world.
• Synthesising these ingredients also results in non-degradeable and sometimes highly toxic waste.
•
Product to waste ratio is often very poor, anything from 1:1 to 1:30
(that is, 30 tons of waste to each ton of the product!)
• The manufacture of synthetic paints produces nearly as much atmospheric pollution as do vehicle exhausts
What is so good about natural paint?
Natural
paints are mainly the result of "gentle chemistry", using ingredients
which are close to their natural state, and therefore relatively easily
reintegrated into the environment.
• Raw materials are carefully chosen to avoid extensive processing.
•
Production involves only a few simple steps, which means that unwanted
waste remains easily biodegraded, and energy use is low.
• Most of the ingredients are part of the natural cycle, deriving energy from the sun, and have minimal global impact.
Some of your paints contain solvents. What is the difference between these and the solvents in ordinary paints?
All solvents (except water) have the potential to affect our health and/or contribute to global warming.
•
Ordinary paints use aromatic solvents of the white spirit type,
derived from processing of crude oil. These solvents contain volatile
compounds such as xylene, which are known to be harmful to human health.
• Our solvent based paints use two solvents, often in combination:
- citrus oils,
- aliphatic hydrocarbons.
Citrus
oils, deriving from orange and lemon peel, can sometimes cause
headaches and skin irritation; they make no net contribution to global
warming. Aliphatic hydrocarbons have very low odour and are the safest
paint solvents available. Derived from crude oil, they do however
contribute to global warming. Many of our paints are "high solids"
formulations, which means they have the minimum possible solvent
content.
Aren't water based paints better for the environment and our health?
Solvents are not the only problem with paints: it really depends on what else is in the paints you buy.
•
Natural paint ingredients are simple and biogradeable, while citrus
and aliphatic solvents are much safer and more environmentally
responsible than conventional white spirit solvents.
• Ordinary
water based paints on the other hand are generally the result of even
more complex chemical processes than solvent based paints. Many also
include some volatile ingredients and biocides which can be harmful to
our health.
Most natural paint manufacturers are now developing more
solvent free products and as the market grows, we can expect this to
increase.
Can natural paints really help with health and allergy problems?
Conventional
paints are thought to produce many health problems. For example, the
World Health Organisation reports that decorators are faced with a 40%
increased chance of contracting lung cancer.
The simple natural
ingredients in our paints are less likely to produce allergic reactions
and are generally much safer than some of the ingredients of
conventional paints.
Allergies are an increasing health problem
in our modern world, a fact that is widely attributed to increasing
chemical complexity in the environment. There are no simple solutions
to allergies, but because we tell you exactly what is in our paints, it
should be easier for you to make an informed choice and avoid suspect
ingredients. If you do have a problem with allergies, citrus
ingredients or other solvents are one of the prime suspects for causing
problems, so it may be advisable to avoid these (look for solvent free).
If you think you have an allergic illness, you should consult your medical advisor.