Home renovations are common in homes all throughout the United States. They can range from painting a porch to building said porch in the first place to even painting a nursery, an exciting event that brings forth new beginnings. However, the type of paint that you choose is all too important. Take painting a nursery, for example. It is critical to use crib safe paint, as your child is likely to one day gnaw on the crib itself. Crib safe paint protects your child from the worst, and the ill effects of using non crib safe paint can be seen if we look to the past, when lead paint was common. Fortunately, lead paint is not frequently used, and it would be difficult to find paint with a considerable lead content – one that could cause damage. However, finding crib safe paint may not be as simple as you originally think.
When you choose your crib safe paint (or really, pain for any use, like porch and floor paint or paint for decks), it is important to pick a paint that is low in VOCs. VOC stands for volatile organic compound, and paint that has a high volatile organic compound content has been linked to a number of health concerns, particularly in children. This is why crib safe paint is so very much important, though it may seem like something less important than having the crib in the first place or other such matters that need to be considered when preparing for a new member of the family to arrive.
For those who have chemical sensitivities, it does not take a high concentration of volatile organic compounds to set them off. In fact, studies show that just a content of five hundred pb or more is enough to trigger chemical sensitivities. And in children, this is even more pronounced. Studies have shown a link between paint with a high content of VOCs and an increased risk of conditions like eczema, asthma, and even allergies. Rhinitis was also common among children who had been exposed on a regular basis to paint with a high concentration of volatile organic compounds.
These volatile organic compounds can even have a negative effect on adults exposed to them, even in those without pronounced or particularly noticeable chemical sensitivities. This effect was seen particularly clearly when it came to cognitive function. One study showed that when an office staff was placed into a hypoallergenic room and removed from their original office space – which had paints containing VOCs in it – their cognitive function and memory improved by a notable margin, by about one hundred and one percent.
Fortunately, volatile organic compounds do dissipate over a period of time. If you are now concerned about volatile organic compounds in your own home, consider when your walls were last painted or your floors last finished. The volatile organic compounds in your exterior floor paint are likely to have diminished significantly if your floor was painted a year or more ago. However, whenever you next paint them, or any part of your home, it is important to choose your paint as carefully and conscientiously as you possibly can. From crib safe paint to types of wall primer used, there are many instances and applications in which pain with a high content of volatile organic compounds can prove to be damaging.
We all want to protect our children. From external dangers, we often feel that we can. However, it is important to be vigilant of even the smaller and seemingly benign dangers that face us in our lives, such as what type of paint to use and how we can avoid using a paint that could potentially be harmful.
