Element Painters Inc. use only the finest Low to No VOC paints

VOC is an abbreviation of Volatile Organic Compound. While this term has gone largely unnoticed up until a decade ago, there has recently been much talk about VOC’s in North America and Europe.

Volatile Organic Compounds are organic chemical compounds which have high vapour pressures, causing them to vaporize into the atmosphere. While various things are constantly vaporizing into our atmosphere, volatile organic compounds pose as major problems to both our indoor and outdoor environment.

VOC’s can largely include carbon-based molecules such as hydrocarbons (natural gas and petroleum), ketones (acetone) and aldehydes (formaldehyde) . Another well-known VOC is methane gas, better known as greenhouse gas. VOCs can be found everywhere, typical sources of VOCs are: paint and paint thinners, cleaning products, and natural gas and petroleum. However they can also be found coming from methane-based causes such as burning wood, cow dung and wetlands.

While there are many natural sources of VOCs throughout our environment, these are methane-based VOCs that occur naturally and are less hazardous than non-methane VOCs. Trees are also a main contributor of methane, methane being the infamous greenhouse gas causing global warming. While there are various organic sources of VOCs in our atmosphere, the unbalance we see today in our homes and environment are the result of centuries of industrialization, creating products and materials which contain non-methane VOC pollutants.

The major concern with VOCs is their contribution to pollution in our air, soil and ground water. However, another major problem has now become apparent, the issue of VOCs in our indoor atmosphere. The American Environmental Protection Association found that the levels of several types of common VOC pollutants can be from 2-5 times higher inside than outside.

An example of the detrimental affects of high indoor VOC levels can be seen with “Sick Building Syndrome.” A study done in 1984 by the World Health Organization showed that up to 30% of new and remodeled buildings across the globe could be contributors to Sick Building Syndrome.

The symptoms of this syndrome can range from irritating to chronic illnesses. People affected by Sick Building Syndrome have been reported to suffer from headaches, eye and throat irritations, depression, fatigue, nausea, dry coughs, reoccurring cases of pneumonia and bronchitis and possibly Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

The causes of this syndrome were found to be poor air quality due to problems with ventilation and a much higher rate of VOC pollutants in the air. Evaporating VOCs can come from a multitude of home and office products: laminated wood, photocopiers, cleaning products, paint, cosmetics and carpet backing to name a few.

With the explosion of Green thinking in recent years, there are steps we can take to significantly decrease the amount of VOCs polluting our environment. There are several environmentally-friendly options in the way of VOC absent cleaning products, building materials, and paints and surface coatings.

Our company promotes the use and knowledge of eco-friendly products to help reverse and prevent the effects of VOCs in our natural environment. We use low-no VOC paint and coating systems wherever we can and are active in the responsible disposal of coating waste. We source organic, recycled, non-toxic and local products for use in our business practices and are always open to new products, questions and ideas.