WHAT'S REALLY IN A CAN OF PAINT?
Paint is a creation of man used from the beginning of recorded history -- from the caves of Lascaux in France to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, on the figureheads of the Spanish ships which founded the New World , to the decorative symbols on teepees of Native Americans. It is used for decoration, for communication, as a preservative and as a maintenance tool. Today, paint has evolved into the protector, preserver and beautifier of home, workplace, public spaces and even houses of worship.
A thin film of paint -- a few thousandths of an inch thick -- protects, seals, hides, and decorates. Simply put, paint offers long term protection at a very moderate price. It keeps existing structures from deteriorating and, in so doing, preserves natural resources such as trees, water, and a variety of energy sources. To further appreciate the merits of paint, it is important to understand what actually goes into the can.
Paint is a simple mixture of ingredients including pigments, a binder and a diluent, or thinner (in latex paint is it water; in solvent paints, it is a petroleum solvent).
Today's pigments, not unlike the mud, blood and chalk used centuries ago, provide the texture, color and hiding properties of paint. The pigments, usually in the form of dry powder, can be organic (containing carbon), inorganic (no carbon), synthetic or naturally-occurring. Today, with the utmost concern for consumer safety, architectural coatings are formulated to be as safe as possible by carefully selecting pigments. No longer in uses in consumer paints are pigments which were found to pose potential health hazards because they contained chromates, lead, soluble barium, or asbestos.
Titanium dioxide is the primary pigment ingredient that provides hiding in light color paints. While any powder, even baby powder, can pose a health hazard if inhaled in high concentrations, titanium dioxide which is also used in cosmetics, soaps and certain food products, when used in a paint film is not respirable and poses no risk to the user. Other inert pigments include calcium carbonate (limestone), talc, clay, sand (silica). All of these are naturally occurring materials that are tightly bound in the paint film and contribute various properties like gloss control, flow, and film build. Iron oxides are inorganic color pigments, chemically akin to rust on metal, that are used to produce reds and yellows.