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Painting Safety For Artists
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By Robert
Wasley
Drawing and painting brings a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction to the many who do it. Nevertheless, you should always keep in mind when you paint that you are working with chemicals. Just because something is a chemical doesn’t necessarily mean it is harmful, but some have that potential. It is important for each artist to become familiar with the basic hazards involved with the materials you work with, learn how to work with them, and take the basic precautions to protect yourself. There are also important environmental concerns having to do with the proper disposal of wastes, however we will look specifically at that issue in an upcoming article.
This article is a basic introduction to chemical hazards in the art studio. We will review not only the hazards themselves but also your primary sources of information regarding potential hazards, container labels, and the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS). We will conclude by covering a set of simple practices you should use at all times to reduce your exposure and keep your studio environment safe.
The Hazards
Chemicals as a group present hazards in a variety of ways. The type and degree of the hazards rests on two issues: what is the material and how much is involved. For our purposes, we can narrow the range of our concerns considerably since neither the material nor the quantities involved are particularly dangerous - relative to something that can explode as some can - but they still have their dangers. These hazards come primarily from pastels and oil painting presenting two areas of concern: flammability hazards and toxic exposure.
Various solvents, such as paint thinner, linseed oil, and turpentine are very flammable. If not handled and stored properly, you could lose your studio and much more. The key to proper handling and storage is to restrict the mixing of the vapors of these materials and oxygen along with any possible sources of ignition. Solvent soaked rags when left uncovered can ignite on their own even without an ignition source.
Naturally, if flammable solvents are mixing in the air and you are breathing that same air, they present not only a flammability hazard, but a toxic one as well. The notion of toxicity or poisons is a simple one – chemical compatibility. Chemicals that are compatible with the chemicals that making up our body have a positive, or at least, a neutral effect. Incompatible chemicals, on the other hand, adversely react to the chemistry of our body. This leads to symptoms that can be overt with little delay or only show their effects subtly, over a period of months or years. So, unless you are eating your paints, and in some volume, this last situation is our biggest concern. How are we exposed? You could be inhaling solvent vapors or particles of dry pigment, contact with or absorption through the skin, or ingestion while pointing a brush or not washing up thoroughly before eating or any other activity involving hand to mouth contact.
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| Materials |
Pigment |
Hazard |
| Thinners,
Linseed Oil |
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Flammable |
Adhesives,
Oil-based paints,
Turpentine |
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Flammable,
sensitizer |
| Antimony |
True
Naples Yellow |
Respiratory
and GI irritation |
| Cadmium |
All
cadmium–based pigments |
Lung,
kidney, nervous system disease, high BP, anemia |
| Chromium |
Chromium
green, strontium yellow, viridian, chrome yellow, zinc yellow |
Skin/respiratory
irritation, allergies, lung cancer |
| Lead |
Flake
white, mixed white, Naples or chrome yellow |
Nervous
system disorders, GI problems |
| Manganese |
Burnt
amber, Mn blue, Mnviolet, Mars brown |
Respiratory
irritation, Nervous system problems |
| Mercury |
Vermillion |
Nervous
system disease |
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Safety
Precautions for Artists
There
are many common sense things you can do to avoid fire or health
problems in the future. As flammability presents the greater danger we
will start with that:
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Purchase in small quantities. Though it might be cheaper, cost isn’t everything. The larger the quantities of flammable materials the greater the danger of fire.
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Store oily rags and papers in a metal fireproof container with a lid and empty daily. Hang oily rags outside your studio in a well-ventilated area to allow evaporation.
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Any enclosed cabinets used for the storage of flammable liquid need to be metal and well ventilated.
Containers when not in use need to be closed and their lids secured.
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Keep your studio well ventilated preventing flammable and/or toxic materials from accumulating.
Avoid using turpentine; instead use odorless thinner.
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When handling pigments and other materials know about the materials you are handling. Always read the directions and warning labels for every substance you handle.
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Use the least dusty forms of chalk, pastels, etc., and avoid mixing dry pigments. If your materials come as a powder in a paper bag or sack, store the opened bag in a metal or plastic container with a lid or simply empty the bag into the container. Use powders only in well-ventilated areas, agitate as little as possible, and avoid breathing or use a dust-mask.
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Avoid any direct contact with materials that could potentially be toxic. This also means avoiding hand to mouth contact, including using your mouth to create a point on your brush.
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Label all materials with clear identification that anyone can understand. Calling something ‘Favorite Blue’ is not helpful unless that is the manufacturer’s name.
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By now you might be thinking that using less dangerous materials is the better route, particularly if children might be involved, or that some of these precautions are difficult to manage. Fortunately, safe and more ecologically friendly materials are being developed and successfully marketed which are listed below.
Eco-Art Supplies
http://www.ecoartsupplies.com
Eco-House Natural Products
http://www.eco-house.com/
Additional listings can be found at:
http://www.arttools.com/general-supplies/environmentally-friendly-art-supplies
The safe handling of art materials need not interfere with the great joy that the execution of art provides, but rather to assure many more years of safe and healthy painting pleasure.
Further Resources
Web Sites
Center for Safety in the Arts
http://artsnet.heinz.cmu.edu:70/0/csa
ACTS: Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety
http://www.caseweb.com/acts/
Princeton University Art Safety Training Guide
http://www.princeton.edu/sites/ehs/artsafety
Books
Artist Beware - Michael McCann, PhD, CIH
The Artist’s Complete Health and Safety Guide, Monona Rossol, MS, MFA
Making Art Safely - M. Spandorfer, D. Curtiss, J. Snyder, MD
Health Hazards Manual for Artists - Michael McCann, PhD, CIH
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