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What Are VOCs? UNDERSTANDING WHY LOW AND ZERO VOC PAINTS ARE GOOD FOR PEOPLE AND GOOD FOR THE PLANET We think of organic products, like organic produce, as being good for us, so why are VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) bad? The confusion stems partly from a misconception about the word "organic." To a chemist, "organic" simply means a compound containing carbon. This includes everything that is or was once living—even petroleum, which isn't what most people mean when they talk about "organic." Besides containing carbon, VOCs are also volatile. This means they evaporate readily at typical room temperatures. When refineries process crude oil, they heat it, capture the gasses, and distill them to produce a wide variety of chemicals that then become building blocks for paints, plastics, fuels and many other products used today. The most volatile distillates, the ones that boil off first, evaporate at such low temperatures that they quickly get into the air when used in paints or adhesives. This means they have high potential for harming indoor air quality and causing health problems. In sunlight, some organic solvents traditionally used in paint can react with nitrous oxides in the atmosphere to form smog. (Nitrous oxides are created by any combustion, from a candle to a car to a power plant.) Because many VOCs may be harmful, hallman/lindsay is committed to finding low and zero VOC alternatives for our paints Our Green Leaf Promise |
