Introduction

In today’s blog post, in a change of pace, we would look at something likely to be prevalent everywhere around us… Paint. Paint is used a lot in our daily lives, from automobile paint used for vehicles to paint for the walls in our houses and buildings to even something as basic as road markings. Due to the variety of paints available on the market, I would be analyzing mainly conventional solvent-based paint for this purpose and to limit the scope of this blog post.

 

Effects of paint on humans

One of the issues with using paint is the chemicals that are emitted from the paint, particularly during the drying process of paint. The famous stench of the paint is, more likely than not, harmful for our health as it contains Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). The exposure to such fumes could cause “headaches, allergies and asthmatic reactions, irritate skin, eyes and airways, and put increased stress on vital organs such as the heart” (Porwal 2015).

Beyond the application of paint, over time, such paint would eventually deteriorate. This is commonly in the form of flakes or small particles. These small particles pose yet another health risk to us. This could come in the form of nanoparticles such as Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂), which is often added to paint for its ultraviolet protection properties to prolong the life of the paint. The problem was that exposure to such nanoparticles was found to damage DNA and induce inflammation in mice (Saber, et al. 2012). While it is unclear what are the effects of such nanoparticles on humans as this is still rather underresearched, paint in its damaged form might really be bad for our health.

 

Effects of paint on the environment

To protect buildings from looking unsightly over time, for example, having facades that are mouldy or teeming with algae, paints typically have chemicals such as biocides added to the mixture to combat such aesthetically displeasing outcomes to inhibit biological growth. For example, a biocide that is effective against fungi is dichlorophenyl (Shirakawa, et al. 2002), also known as Diuron. Such biocides are also used in antifouling paints, such as for protecting the outer shell of ships. The problem is that paint eventually fails, typically dropping off as flakes. The eventual introduction of such flakes into the environment eventually also makes its way into aquatic environments such as the sea and rivers. The biocides that are in the paint flakes are harmful to the aquatic environment due to its ability to disrupt the normal functioning of the aquatic and marine ecosystem (depending on where the paint flake is) by hindering the growth of algae, seagrass, duckweed, crustaceans and fish, depending on the dosage (Gatidou and Thomaidis 2007).

The issue is that there is a lot of research to show the effects of such a chemical on the environment, with reasons on why we should stop the usage of such chemicals because of its toxicity. Despite these warnings, we continue to use it because we do not have a really good alternative that is truly environmentally safe.

 

Bibliography

Gatidou, Georgia, and Nikolaos S. Thomaidis. 2007. “Evaluation of single and joint toxic effects of two antifouling biocides, their main metabolites and copper using phytoplankton bioassays.” Aquatic Toxicology (Elsevier) 85: 184 – 191. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquatox.2007.09.002.

Porwal, Tina. 2015. “Paint Pollution Harmful Effects On Environment.” International Journal of Research – GRANTHAALAYAH 3 (9): 1 – 4. doi:10.29121/granthaalayah.v3.i9SE.2015.3204.

Saber, Anne Thoustrup, keld Alstrup Jensen, Nicklas Raun Jacobsen, Renie Birkedal, Lone Mikkelsen, Peter Moller, Steffen Loft, Hakan Wallin, and Ulla Vogel. 2012. “Inflammatory and genotoxic effects of nanoparticles designed for inclusion in paints and lacquers.” Nanotoxicology (Informa UK, Ltd) 6 (5): 453 – 471. doi:10.3109/17435390.2011.587900.

Shirakawa, Marcia A., Christine C. Gaylarde, Peter M. Gaylarde, Vanderley John, and Walderez Gambale. 2002. “Fungal colonization and succession on newly painted buildings and the effect of biocide.” FEMS Microbiology Ecology (Elsevier) 39: 165 – 173. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6941.2002.tb00918.x.