Entry bubble Painting Weekend!

By: Sommer | November 23, 2007 | Category: Health

This weekend, instead of traveling or shopping like crazy, we’ll be painting the bedrooms in our townhouse. I’m really excited to finish this project so I can focus on the other decorating and organizing that I’ve been putting off for about 6 months. Also, since I’m one of those people who can’t stand white walls, I’m doubly excited to paint! (I inherited this case of “white-wall-itis” from my mother…) painter

Although I’m excited to paint and do some other minor home improvement projects I’m also concerned about the quality of our indoor air, both since our townhouse is about 60 years old and because the Environmental Protection Agency reported that the air in America’s homes contains 2 to 5 times more volatile organic compounds (VOC) than the air outdoors.

Products like paint, carpet, building materials, cleaning products, and dry cleaned clothing all contain VOC’s which include chemicals like benzene (in glues, paints and furniture wax), methylene chloride (in paint strippers and aerosol paints), and perchloroethylene (in newly dry cleaned clothing). Obviously, products with lower levels of these chemicals are better for your health and home and they’re better for the environment, too, since they’re typically produced with more environmentally friendly processes.

Remembering back to how bad the fumes smelled after we painted in the spring led me to look into using low VOC paints this time since they release fewer dangerous and stinky fumes into the air. I think they’re a little more expensive but the difference in price is definitely worth the added comfort and peace of mind.

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