Low VOC Paint
Award-winning low VOC paints from Sherwin-Williams provide the superior surface of solvent-based paints without all the smell.
Credit: iStock
Do-it-yourself people who have ever painted the interior of a home are familiar with the pervasive odor of oil-based paints. These paints have much higher levels of VOCs, or Volatile Organic Compounds than latex paints, but oil paints are often the best choice for a textured ceiling or for priming drywall after stripping off wallpaper. If only the fumes weren’t so disagreeable!
It turns out that the fumes of oil-based paints are not only bad for our lungs, but they are also one of the primary pollutants in the formation of photochemical smog and ground level ozone.
The Sherwin-Williams Company decided to address these issues when it developed water-based acrylic alkyd paints for which the company recently won the 2011 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in the Designing Greener Chemicals division. (http://www.epa.gov/gcc/pubs/pgcc/winners/dgca11.html)
At the heart of the new paints is a low VOC, alkyd–acrylic dispersion (LAAD) built from sustainability principles. The components include PET from recycled soda bottles to give the dried material rigidity and hardness, acrylics for a rapid drying time and durability, soybean oil to promote film formation, gloss, flexibility, and cure. The resulting paints have the desirable moisture resistance, adhesion, and gloss of alkyds as well as low VOC, low odor, and resistance to yellowing of acrylics. Their approval for use in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building construction further verifies the low environmental impact of these paints.
In 2010, Sherwin-Williams manufactured enough of these new paints to eliminate over 800,000 pounds of VOCs. That’s a breath of fresh air to the environment, to painters, and homeowners everywhere.