Toxins Stay Back!
Nov 03 '00
From the wrongfully presumed innocence of a can of latex paint to a toxic vat of paint stripper, anyone who does any sort of home construction and/or repair, is bombarded by wave after wave of deadly stuff. After all, most of these products have health advisories that are longer than most newspaper articles.
Paints, primers, and stains all contain chemicals that are considered toxins, meaning that they tend to damage or kill a wide variety of cells. Dead and damaged cells can cause many problems from superficial wrinkles and blemishes to organ failure and theroretically, Parkinson's disease - even though clear links have not been established. Also, damaged cells pass along their distorted genes to their offspring, which become further damaged from toxins, which might lead to cancer. Along withe paints and such, glues, strippers, and cleanup products (such as mineral spirits and paint thinner) all can damage or destroy brain cells. While humans are blessed with more brain cells than they need, many are lost each day due to normal wear and tear from oxidants (hence the importance of antioxidants.) Dust from sanding down spackling compound, asbestos, lead paint, and chemically treated would can all cause a variety of problems. Clearly one needs protection.
Like always, common sense prevails in these safety issues. Of course you want to follow all the manufacturer's directions and make sure the work areas, if not the whole house is properly ventilated. A word to the wise, over the life of a coat of paint, toxins, mainly formaldehyde and benzyne, are released on a daily basis - most of which leaks into the air during the first thirty days after being applied, however, even years after, small amounts continue to seep out. This can be offset by opening windows on warm days, but most cities now have air more damaging than this paint toxin tainted air. A more preferable solution is to by some toxin absorbing plants. NASA recently conducted a study of more than one hundred plants and found that some of them actually rid the air of some harmful chemicals - considering the atmosphere can only dilute so much, it is better to rid the planet of these chemicals than to just open a window a let them increase the potency of the pollutants already in the air. It should be noted that a brand of paint called Safe Coat, advertises to be free of most toxins, however I do not know how durable it is; also, it is difficult to find - at least in my area, but the company has a toll free number in their advertisements - one frequently appears in Natural Home magazine.
Wearing thick chemical resistant gloves is a must when working with any of these chemicals. Not only will this save your hands from being coated with toxic, and most likely, carcinogenic, chemicals, it also saves you from having to use equally toxic chemicals to remove all that dried oil based paints and stains from your hands. Liquid gloves is a product that should be considered as a second-line of defense. Despite wearing gloves when I paint, I always seem to get just a little on my hands - and it always seems it is when I'm going to go out later in the evening and having paint in the crevices of one's hands is not that appealing to anyone. Liquid Gloves claims to prevent harsh chemicals from seeping into your skin and also acts as a moisturizer. While I cannot prove that it actually does what it is supposed to, I have noticed that while wearing it, paint cleans off my hands much easier. Also, it is quite a good value, a small bottle of roughly ten liberal applications, costs a couple of dollars at most home improvement stores, and probably your local hardware store.
A good respirator should also be considered a must - not one of those thin paper masks, but an actual cartridge based, rubber and plastic mask. A decent multi-contaminant mask can be bought for well under $50, but honestly, how much do you value your health? A mask that filters out hazardous dust (lead, asbestos, etc) and chemicals (oil aerosols) is your best defense against a wide range of problems. I have noticed that even though my cartridges are for just hazardous dust, due to all the lead paint in my projects, my mask does a good job of filtering out a lot of paint fumes; however, this is no excuse for good ventilation.
Always bring a change of clothes to your work site. Asbestos workers in Libbey, Montana accidentally and tragically brought home the toxic dust to their families everyday for years; their wives and children came down with the same lung diseases that the workers did. If you are working in the house you live in, always seal off the room with sheet plastic on the doors - to prevent dust and fumes from spreading throughout the house. Consider as well a HEPA air cleaner. While sometimes pricey these do a good job of trapping a lot of the dust particals you cannot vacuum up. If you are working with lead paint, assume that you are unless you know, for a fact, otherwise, you may want to read my editorial in this section entitled "The Hidden Enemy."
Lastly, certain vitamins and herbs may help. Your liver is responsible for removing toxins from your body - hence the correlation between alcohol and liver disease - and significant scientific evidence shows that Milk Thistle supplements help the liver remove chemicals, protect the liver and help repair it more quickly. Also, preliminary studies have shown that antioxidants help protect against medical toxins. While this is just my theory, and it has no scientific basis, antioxidants MAY help reduce the damage from these toxins. Whether they do or not, taking antioxidants is something that is highly recommended by many medical experts - and a lot of so-called experts. Vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C, zinc, selenium, and vitamin E are all considered to be antioxidants.
Given the sheer amount of chemicals and toxins found in most construction products, it pays to spend a little extra money and time to protect yourself. After all, with exposure to carcinogens, there are no second chances.
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Epinions.com ID:
anecdoter
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Member: Steve
Location: Toledo, OH
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 3 members
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