low toxicity paints for children’s rooms
Slowly but surely, I’m almost done renovating the nursery. I’ve gone through a little more detail on Almost A Dad, but I’d like to share what I think is an important aspect of doing home improvement where children will be living; low VOC paint.
It is estimated that interior air quality is four times as polluted as exterior air (depending on where you live), and a major causes of this is volatile organic compound (VOC) gasses emitted from paint. Typical paint has high levels of VOCs which will continue to emit into the environment for years.
From the EPA, health effects of VOCs include:
Eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches, loss of coordination, nausea; damage to liver, kidney, and central nervous system. Some organics can cause cancer in animals; some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans. Key signs or symptoms associated with exposure to VOCs include conjunctival irritation, nose and throat discomfort, headache, allergic skin reaction, dyspnea, declines in serum cholinesterase levels, nausea, emesis, epistaxis, fatigue, dizziness.
However, there are now quite a few low-VOC paint options on the market which have a fraction of the toxicity of standard paints. We used Benjamin Moore Eco Spec paint which, although a little bit more expensive, has less than 1 gram of VOC per liter. I find it well worth the extra bucks considering that my child, my wife and I will be exposed to this stuff for years to come.
I think it’s definitely worth the consideration if you have a painting project on the horizon.
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