Paint it green: Colors without toxins

Eric Howard is no newcomer to freshening up and coloring his world.

"I've been painting since I was 5," the newly transplanted Kalispell professional painter said. His dad had a painting business in California, so "I've had a paint brush in my hand since I've been walking."

But over the past few years he's undergone a transformation on what the tools of his trade ought to be.

Extensive research has convinced him that green is the only way for a painter to go. Environmentally friendly paints, with no volatile organic compounds or with a low-VOC content, are his stock in trade now.

Howard, 22, tallied up some of the human ailments attributed to VOCs that are generated by products from gasoline to paint - asthma, cancers, lung and kidney problems, memory failures.

He thinks people in his profession can do their part to cut the risk. It's not only paint remover or even oil-based or lead-based paints that concern him. Seemingly innocuous latex paint can be nearly as toxic.

"The main thing about latex [paint] is that there's VOCs in it," he said. "The greenhouse gases aren't just released during the drying time, but during the lifetime of the paint. Only 50 percent are released during drying."

As he talked, he picked up a bucket of paint in the back entry of a home on Fifth Avenue East that he is working on, and started reading the fine print on the label. Compounds that scare him and threaten everyone's health, he said, are in there.

Then he found the name he was searching for.

"This has crystalline silica," he said. "That causes … lung cancer."

Every large paint manufacturer makes paint that still contains crystalline silica and other harmful fillers, he said.

Upping the risk ante, he added that a child who spends an average amount of time in his own room - sleeping, playing games, just hanging out - inhales enough VOCs to equal the toxins in four cigarettes a day.

Howard headed out to the home's garage to check the label on another bucket: Paint thinner has 760 grams of VOCs per liter, he said, translating to about 6.35 pounds per gallon.

Oil paint can have anywhere from 650 to 800 grams per liter, he said. Oil-based stains are in the same ballpark. Standard latex paint has 150 grams per liter.

But low-VOC latex paint has between .05 and 30 grams per liter. It's not perfect, but it's a huge improvement, he said.

He cited a California Clean Air Act study of a Southern California county that showed paint alone released 66 tons of VOCs into the air every day. The airborne compounds from gasoline, on the other hand, weighed in at 40 tons daily.

Just one coat of ordinary primer on a room's walls require two coats of zero-VOC paint to seal off the VOC release, he said.

Gauging from these and similar statistics, ubiquitous paints and stains are a bigger threat than most folks realize.

"People are oblivious to it," he said. "And how are you supposed to fix anything if you don't know about it?"

That's why Howard is convinced the best way to go is with low- or zero-VOC paints.

Right now he gets the bulk of his paints from the major manufacturers in the industry. But he said he is poised to start working with a company based in Washington and Arizona that uses all natural components - clay and milk among them. He said there are only seven substances in the product, all non-toxic.

"And it gives just a beautiful finish. It's great for faux finishes," he said.

The paint might cost an extra $200 or so for an entire house, "but you have it for a lifetime," he said. And it's not giving off volatile organic compounds.

The clay-based formulation is available only for interior paints now, but he said the manufacturer is working to develop an exterior paint.

As a new painter with only 10 months in the Flathead, however, he accommodates what the market demands. About half his customers are impressed with his low- and zero-VOC emphasis. The other half just want the job done by any product necessary.

But he's not dissuaded.

He plans to stick around and is hoping, someday, to be in the position of using exclusively low- and zero-VOC on his paint contracting jobs. Howard also hopes to develop his own line of paints eventually.

He's got an artistic bent that fuels his profession, and an environmental conscience that drives his choices.

"If I can offer art and make it good for the environment, why not?" he said. And if he can do his part in cutting risks and helping educate other people, he'll keep doing whatever it takes.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com