Baby Safe Paints for Nurseries

Sep 3

with Certified Building Biologist Tomas Gaertner

LISTEN TO THIS SHORT VIDEO WHERE TOMAS GAERTNER EXPLAINS WHY EVERYDAY PAINT ISN’T SAFE FOR BABIES

DEBORAH: “If you're running into a paint store, why should you not get the typical paints that are being sold nowadays in the stores and even perhaps a low VOC paint for your child or nursery?”

TOMAS: “Because if you go for example, the Trade paints or immersion paints or modern paints, in addition to these four traditional components with just with the, the bulk of the paint which makes 95% of all the paint product that you buy, these trade paints or, or commercial paints they often then have up to 5%, 10% of additives. And these additives are typically chemicals. These additives are put in there to make the paint easier, to work, to dry quicker, to dry more evenly, not to crack for example as well, to last longer.

So they include preservatives, insecticides, pesticides. So they're not attracted by, by animals and pollutants, but also funky sites in there. But all of these chemicals, which come in there with a well intention. So you don't have any mold or something like that, easily developing on that surface.

They also off-gas they are typically volatile organic compounds. So that means VOCs. And these are chemicals that at room temperature off-gas finds its way into the air when they break down and we breathe them in. And this can cause also allergic responses, especially from children, but their bodies are still developing and evolving. Their organs are not fully developed yet. And the immune system is not fully developed like in a grown up person.

And so also because of their smaller body mass in a child, the chemical content within a room, at that level is much more serious for a small person because they are more of a higher concentration essentially of these VOCs to deal with. And for example, for a grown-up, especially because the grown-ups immune system is fully developed and that's why, especially in nurseries, I believe looking at these additives is a key, key strategy there as well. And choosing a low VOC paint is certainly the first way of doing this.”

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