We are all painters! Choose your materials wisely.
What’s wrong with conventional paints?
Paints are made of 3 major components: Pigment, Medium and Solvent. With today’s art supplies and house paints, it is common that one or more of these components are harmful to our environment.
Pigments
Pigments are the colouring agents in our paints. Pigments are made of very fine particles of metal, mineral or organic compounds. The majority of pigments in commercial and artist-quality paints are to some degree toxic. Of these pigments certain metal oxides are very dangerous. For example: Cadmium-red, Cobalt-blue, Chromium-green, and Barium-yellow. These are part of a group termed heavy metals, many of which can react dangerously in living organisms. Cadmium, Cobalt, and Chromium are known carcinogens and overexposure to Barium cases CNS damage. Pouring these or any other toxic pigments down the drain is a hazard to the biosphere we are a part of.
Click here for a list of paint pigments and their toxicities.
Mediums
There is a wide variety of paint mediums used today. They can be made of many different substances- anything that will hold a pigment and then dry on a desired surface. Common mediums include acrylics, alkyds, oils and glues. Pure acrylic and plant oils are essentially non-toxic, but these mediums are rarely used alone. In oil paint, a type of drying salt is usually present to make sure the paint dries quickly. Drying salts can be highly toxic and commonly contain cobalt.
Mediums (continued)
Acrylic house paints are very hazardous to the environment as they contain vinyl polymers. Dioxin and other harmful gases are by-products of vinyl production. Most mediums contain deadly biocides and chemicals to ensure that the paint doesn’t rot. Although these chemicals are potent they are used in small amounts, so by law, companies are not forced to list them as ingredients.
Solvents
Solvents are used to make sure that the pigments disperse evenly into the paint medium and to modify the paint's viscosity. Although not all such Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) are toxic, the ones used in paint solvents are. 50% of the toxic VOC’s that humans produce globally come from paints. In the atmosphere, paint solvents can account for 12% of the all anthropogenic VOC's. Many of these VOC’s are ozone-depleting chemicals.
What can you do?
#1. Recycle your water
If you are still using toxic paints don’t pour your water down the drain; instead, create a system of water collection. Have a jar for each colour of paint you use, and clean your brushes in them accordingly. Keep the lids off your jars, and the water will slowly evaporate. Note: Do not let them evaporate entirely as the pigment dust is dangerous if you inhale it.
If you need to dispose of any water or heavily soiled containers take them to the toxic waste drop off facility near you or at your local dump. Make sure they go to a toxic facility where they will not enter the ground water table.
#2 Use Non-toxic Pigments
If you’re just painting for fun, there is a whole spectrum of non-toxic paints found in children’s art supplies that work fine and can be practiced with. However, many of these colours have poor permanence. If you’re a professional artist or you are painting a house there is a wide variety of metal, mineral and organic pigments that are permanent and non-toxic. Bright red, yellow and green are usually toxic from metals and mineral sources, but some of these colours can be produced synthetically (organic) at very low toxicity. Nonetheless, some organic pigments are toxic so detailed investigation should be made into each colourant.
The following is a list of readily available pigments that are permanent and non-toxic.
Black | Bone Black PB 9, Charcoal Black PB 8, Graphite PB 10, Mars Black PB 11 |
Blue | Phylalocyanine blue PB 15, Copper Phthalocyanine, Ultramarine Blue PB 29 |
Brown | Burnt Sienna PB 6, Van dyke Brown PB9 |
Green | Phylalocyanine Green PG 7 Polychlorinated copper phthalocyanine, Ultramarine Green PG 24. |
Orange | Mars Orange PR 101. |
Red | English Red PR 101 Indian red, Mars red, Terra Rosa, Tuscan red. Ultramarine Red PV 15 |
Violet | Ultramarine Violet PV 15 |
Yellow | Mars Yellow, Iron Oxides Yellow, Raw Sienna, Yellow Ochre, PY 42, 43. |
Metallic | Aluminium, Gold, Silver, Bronze. |
White | Titanium Dioxide (TiO2). |
#2 Use Non-toxic Pigments (continued)
Click here to see a list of all common artist pigments and their toxicities.
Remember to make sure that they are not hazardous in all three categories: inhalation, ingestion, and by skin contact. If the hazard is listed as low, do your own investigation and decide if it’s worth the risk before you use it.
If you are an artist: Many companies list the pigment(s) and composition on the back of the paint tube, or it may be implied in the paint title (i.e. Cobalt Blue). Make sure that the pigments listed on your paints are non-toxic.
If you are using house paint: The pigment compositions of most house paints are not listed on the containers. House paints are usually tinted with a variety of pigments, and finding one without any toxic pigments may be difficult. One typically non-toxic paint is plain white paint. This will contain non-toxic titanium dioxide (TiO2) and inert earth minerals that act as pigment extenders. If you want a tinted but non-toxic house paint you can order such paints from earthpaint.net, or visit your local eco-friendly supply store and show them the list of non-toxic pigments you would allow to them to tint your paint with, and see what they can do (i.e. in Ottawa, go to Healthiest Home).
#2 Use Non-toxic Pigments (continued)
Warning: If you make your own paints and use dry pigments, inhalation of metal, mineral and organic pigments can be extremely hazardous even if they are non-toxic. Fine particulates in your lungs are considered mutagenic and can cause cancer. If you can, make your paints outdoors and wear a good organic/particulate respirator.
Non-toxic organic pigments can also be created at home. Many fabrics in India are dyed with plant pigments. This is usually done in combination with a non-toxic metal salt. Some research should be done to determine the relative permanency of such pigments with and without the salt. One totally permanent pigment is carbon black, produced from burnt plant or animal material. A nice brown dark brown can be made from black walnut husks. I recommend pure organic pigments if possible. Although non-toxic metal and mineral pigments work great, the processes carried out to remove metal and mineral from the ground is costly to the environment. Use them sparingly, and only if necessary- not for practice or as a beginner artist!
Recently I have switched to using calcium carbonate as my white pigment instead of the metal titanium dioxide. Instead of buying this mineral that would otherwise be excavated you can collect it from egg shells (more than 95% CaCO3). Just remove the inner membranes from your egg shells (this is directly attached to the shell and is sometimes hard to see...
#2 Use Non-toxic Pigments (continued)
...remove it by rubbing your fingers on the inside of the shell or pulling it off from the edges of the shell), allow the shells to dry, and then crush them into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle. White or brown eggs work fine. Remember to be careful of pigment dust. Next time you need white, head for the kitchen !
The ancient method of creating vibrant non-toxic pigments used by the Mayan civilization has been rediscovered. By combining organic plant pigments with hot clay a very stable pigments is created. The colours are lightfast, and do not require any chemical extraction, as do metal pigments of the same brilliance. To learn more about these pigments please visit www.mayanpigments.com
#3 Use non-toxic Mediums and Solvents
As mentioned above, pure acrylic and Oil mediums are non-toxic. If you use Citrisol with pure acrylic, it makes a fine non-toxic painting medium for artists and house painters. Citrisol is available at most fine arts stores, and pure acrylic can be purchased through some art stores, eco-friendly supply stores and earthpaint.net. Citrisol is a great alternative to turpentine, which is harsh but used by oil painters to thin their paint and clean their brushes. Toxic drying salts are usually required to make pure linseed oil dry, but fortunately www.earthpaint.net has developed relatively quick drying oils that don’t use toxic salts.
#3 Use non-toxic Mediums and Solvents (continued)
If you’re painting a house you can now buy a number of paints with low or no VOC’s as solvents. These are available at many large retailers, at earthpaint.net, and at Healthiest Home in Ottawa. Artist paints are considerably lower in VOC concentration but if you want to create a non-VOC artist acrylic you will have to make it at home using pure acrylic and citrisol.
Egg tempera is a great medium for artists, which is totally non-toxic, and uses only water and egg yolk. You can learn more about egg tempera at www.eggtempera.com. For painting on hard surfaces such as walls and masonite, set painting is another earth friendly technique. By using non-toxic animal based glues, you can combine non-toxic pigments with a little water to produce a non-toxic paint.
#4 Reasearch
The best thing you can do is start researching all the avenues for yourself. I learn new things on a daily basis. I know its difficult, especially because there are very few sources of information on this topic. But you can do it!
Remember: paints are made of 3 components. To have a truly earth-friendly paint you must make sure that the pigment, medium and solvent are all safe. For starters try the following links and begin changing your art, your business and your home for a greener future…..
Links
Health & Safety in the ArtsHealth and Safety in the Arts is a great data base to help you understand mediums, pigments, studio safety and links to other helpful sites. This is the most informative and helpful site I have found yet.
www.earthpaint.netEarthpaint Inc is North America's greenest paint supplier. The site lists products and has a helpful overview explaining problems with conventional paints.
Iowa State University department of ChemistryMSDS sheets for almost every non-gaseous substance in alphabetical order. Very useful.
MSDS sheetsMSDS sheets for gaseous substances.
Links (continued)
www.eggtempera.comA great site to teach yourself about the earth-friendly medium of egg tempera.
www.thehealthiesthome.comYour local healthy building store (Ottawa and other locations)
www.eco-house.comProducers of a wide variety of green paint products including Citrisol.
www.pyroguide.comMake your own wheat based glue that works great!
www.nearseanaturals.comOrganic Textiles and Thread!
If you have any questions, comments or criticisms please don’t hesitate to contact me. If you find any links to other earth friendly artists and paint companies that you think should be listed here please send them. Thank you.