Use no or low VOC paints

One of the many tips in the book, Healing and Preventing Autism by Jenny McCarthy and Jerry Kartzinel is to use no or low volatile organic compound (VOC) paint. I’m a bit embarrassed that I didn’t know to look or ask for this type of paint and since Moses has been born, we’ve painted all of the interior walls in two different homes.  (Yikes).

VOCs are harsh chemical compounds that could cause long-term health problems including cancer and kidney and liver disease (p. 120).

Well, it’s fortuitous that I started to read this book because we are in the middle of home renovations, and so we went to Home Depot and purchased no VOC paint. The thing about it is if you want it to be another colour other than white, some VOCs are added by adding additional colour. As a result, we chose a very light blue and a very light grey for our walls (we still wanted a bit of colour), so we wound up with low VOC paint. The colours we chose were lighter colours than we otherwise would have chosen if we were choosing just based on aesthetics.  We’ll also give it about a week after the renovations and painting to let everything settle and let the house air out before we move the family back in.

I did a bit of a search on the net after we purchased the paint and learned that Benjamin Moore has a no VOC paint that comes in any colour.  Now we’ll know for next time.

Update:  Mythic paint is also a no VOC paint.