As a parent, painting is something you are likely to do either prior to the birth of your child or once they are born and then again (and again) as they grow and you change their room to their age and preferences.
Before painting you will have many choices to make, lots of them. Colour probably takes top billing – there are so many colours to choose from nowadays that it can seem quite daunting. Often people choose the brand of paint they are going to use as a default to the colour they want. They fall in love with a particular colour from a particular wheel and the brand choice is made.
What if there were significant reasons to choose the brand before the colour? As many of you may know, the fumes from painting can be overpowering and dangerous.
Standard paints can contain VOCs – these Volatile Organic Compounds are health-damaging nasties that are known to continue to let off-gas into the air we breathe for up to 6 years after the paint has dried. They have been linked to cancer, leukemia, respiratory problems, increased risks of asthma, exacerbation of symptoms in autistic people and much more.
The paint industry’s solution has been to create low-VOC alternatives to standard paints and while these certainly go some way towards lessening the damage, but low-VOC is not no-VOC. Children have still been shown to suffer four-fold increases in asthma attacks when they are exposed to as little as 1/8 of the Australian industry guideline levels of VOC exposure (Rumchev 2004)
There is a new Australian innovation on the market: ecolour paint. Ecolour paints are currently the only provider of completely VOC-free, premium, acrylic paints on the Australian market and the only Carbon Neutral paint in the world. These paints are comparable in quality and price to other premium paints and are available in any colour from any colour wheel (that’s over 36,000 colours to choose from).
So the next time you are thinking about painting consider asking your local paint store about ecolour paints and the benefits of having being VOC free.
ecolour paints are manufactured in Byron Bay and are distributed from there and a new distribution centre in Melbourne. Orders and advice can be found online and over the phone (www.ecolour.com.au and 1300 326 568).
