Does zero-VOC paint really mean zero?
Throughout North America zero-VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) is gaining attention. This means that per federal regulation, there is a reduction in the amount of harmful material coming out of your paint as it dries. The EPA in the US determined that the off-gassing from architectural coatings is estimated to account for about 9% of greenhouse emissions over urban centres. BUT, and this is a big BUT… It is important to understand that using the EPA’s test method for VOC’s, any paint with 250 g/l or less of VOCs can be called low-VOC paint. Further, the colorant that is typically added to these paints has VOC’s, meaning that the paint you take home may not be zero-VOC, even if the base is. So it really is insufficient to consider only VOC’s when making paint purchasing decisions. The environmental footprint of a low-VOC paint can include all kinds of synthetic materials to control flow, skinning, settling, etc., that ultimately don’t support a vision of sustainability and well being fo
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