A Lifestyle Guide for People with Allergies and Food Sensitivities

Color Your World
I love my bedroom. Although small, it’s my haven. But it’s white and I want color — and that means paint.
 

In the past, I would have trotted down to the hardware store, picked out a new color and slapped it on the wall. But in recent years, I’ve made an effort to keep a healthier home in terms of the household products I use, which has made a positive difference in my family’s health. That, and the fact that my husband hates the smell of paint, prompted me to research my options before starting my latest decorating project.

Paint Pointers
Paint has three distinct elements — color, adhesive and binder. Color is a pigment giving visual appeal and hiding ability. The adhesive element holds the pigment to the surface you’re painting, and the binder maintains the mixed pigment and adhesive in liquid, spreadable form. The chemicals frequently used to perform these jobs include solvents, formaldehyde, benzene, mercury and petrochemicals. Lead, cadmium and chromium may be used in pigments for color. That “fresh paint smell” is likely dibutyl and diethyl phthalate — volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.

VOCs can occur naturally. Cut into a lemon and you’ll see what I mean. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, however, warns that many modern-day chemicals emit VOCs which are health hazards, contributing to poor air quality and indoor pollution. These VOCs come from household chemicals and solvents, like toluene, xylene and paint thinner. According to the American Lung Association, VOCs can be related to physical problems, such as eye and skin irritation, lung and breathing problems, headaches, nausea, muscle weakness, and liver and kidney damage.

VOCs are normally ten times higher indoors than outdoors and as much as 1,000 times higher indoors after a new coat of paint. Outgassing, the release of trapped or frozen gas, is at its highest the first four days after painting.